1. Warren’s war on women’s choice, By the Washington Examiner, July 18, 2022, 8:24 AM, Editorial
The Left really needs to make up its mind about which lie it wants to stick with on abortion.
On the one hand, leftists accuse anti-abortion activists of not caring about children once they’ve been born. On the other, they demonize them for doing precisely that.
Both are calumnies, but the first is the more sickening. Not only are many pro-lifers loving parents, but they have founded and continue to fund thousands of organizations that provide such resources as free healthcare, childcare, toys, diapers, job training, adoption referrals, and even a place to stay for mothers facing unexpected or crisis pregnancies.
In turn, these crisis pregnancy centers are the subject of the Left’s second lie — that they somehow “fool” or “torture” the women who take advantage of their services. Those are the exact words that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) used last week to describe what these lifesaving organizations do. She also said Congress should “shut them down all around the country.”
But women are not stupid. Yes, there are stories of fraudulent abortionists so unscrupulous that they take money and pretend to perform abortions on nonpregnant women. But nobody who walks into a crisis pregnancy center is “fooled” out of an abortion. Abortion is a last resort for most women. Most of the women who visit these centers walk in hoping to be persuaded. Often, they will not abort if someone only offers them help and hope.
It is one thing to disagree on abortion as a political issue. It is quite another to try to frame the debate so dishonestly as to make pro-lifers damned if they do care for babies after they are born and also damned if they don’t. If anything evinces a lack of concern for babies after they are born, it is the pro-choice attitude toward pregnancy help centers that give women what abortion campaigners such as Warren apparently do not want them to have — an actual choice of something other than abortion.
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When pro-lifers put their money where their mouths are and care for babies after they are born, they are rewarded with violence, lawsuits, and lies from the likes of Warren. The pro-lifers, to their credit, will keep caring for those babies anyway.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/warrens-war-on-womens-choice
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2. Pope Francis warns of toxicity in social media, calls for inclusion in digital space, By AC Wimmer, Catholic News Agency, July 18, 2022, 3:56 AM
Pope Francis has called on Catholics to counter toxicity in social media, and to engage in dialogue and education to help deal with “lies and misinformation.”
In a message published by the Holy See on July 18, the Holy Father also called for the inclusion of currently excluded communities into “the digital space.”
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In his message, Pope Francis said, “the use of digital media, especially social media, has raised a number of serious ethical issues that call for wise and discerning judgment on the part of communicators and all those concerned with the authenticity and quality of human relationships.”
“Sometimes and in some places, media sites have become places of toxicity, hate speech and fake news,” the pope added.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251810/pope-francis-warns-of-toxicity-in-social-media-calls-for-inclusion-in-digital-space
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3. Make birth control more accessible, The FDA should prioritize review of the over-the-counter pill., By The Washington Post, July 18, 2022, Pg. A18, Editorial
The French company that has asked for permission to sell birth control pills over the counter in the United States says the timing of its request to the Food and Drug Administration, coming soon after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, is coincidental. That might be, but the court’s decision eliminating the constitutional right to abortion makes more urgent than ever the imperative of easily accessible birth control. As with any drug, the FDA must follow the science. But if over-the-counter birth control makes sense — and for years it has worked safely in other countries — the agency should approve it as soon as possible.
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Birth control is certainly no substitute for access to abortion care, but it is key to people making choices about their bodies, and can help in preventing unintended pregnancies and thereby reducing abortions. There should be timely review of this request, as House Democrats urged in a letter to the FDA sent even before the court’s misguided ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. And if the application passes scientific muster, we hope the FDA doesn’t repeat the mistake it made in its approval of over-the-counter use of the emergency contraception pill, Plan B, when it imposed age limits.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/17/over-the-counter-birth-control-pill-priority/
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4. Pope seeks prayers for his ‘penitential’ Canadian pilgrimage, By Frances D’Emilio, Associated Press, July 17, 2022, 8:07 AM
Pope Francis on Sunday asked for prayers to accompany him on what he called his “penitential” pilgrimage to Canada to apologize to Indigenous groups for abuses inflicted by the Catholic church.
Greeting the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis noted that on July 24, “God willing,” he will begin a seven-day trip to Canada.
“Dear brothers and sisters of Canada, as you know I will come among you above all in the name of Jesus to meet and embrace the Indigenous populations,’’ Francis said.
“Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious institutions, contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation, that, in the past, gravely damaged, in various ways, the Native communities,” the pope said, speaking from a studio window of the Apostolic Palace facing the square.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-seeks-prayers-for-his-penitential-canadian-pilgrimage/2022/07/17/0fb53ad4-05c9-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html
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5. Pondering the lack of a ‘loyal opposition’ in Francis’s College of Cardinals, By John L. Allen Jr., Crux, July 17, 2022, Opinion
At the time of Pope John Paul II’s death in April 2005, there were 117 cardinals under the age of 80 eligible to elect his successor. Two were unable to participate for health reasons, which meant that 115 cardinals filed into the Sistine Chapel when the conclave got underway.
Since John Paul had reigned for almost 27 years, all but two of those 115 cardinals had been named by him – only Joseph Ratzinger of Germany and William Baum of the United States had been given their red hats by Pope Paul VI.
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For those wishing a more progressive alternative to John Paul II, there were any number of plausible options.
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Such figures constituted what one might call John Paul’s “loyal opposition,” meaning cardinals who admired the pontiff but who were also known to disagree, both publicly and privately, with some aspects of his pontificate.
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[E]ven seasoned ecclesiastical observers struggle to identify a single cardinal named by the current pope who could be described as part of a “loyal opposition.”
Critics no doubt will say this shortage is because Pope Francis has made a fetish of personal loyalty, elevating only figures who agree with him. They would point, for instance, to Archbishops Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja and Anthony Fisher of Sydney as prelates with a credible claim to a red hat, who are known to lean at least a bit to the right, all of whom so far have been left out in the cold.
However, there are at least three other possible explanations.
First, because Francis has emphasized distributing red hats to the peripheries of the world, an unusually large share of the current crop of cardinals are essentially unknowns. It may well be that there are plenty of “change” candidates in the college, but whose outlooks haven’t yet had a chance to emerge into full public view.
Second, John Paul was fortunate to inherit an episcopacy in the late 1970s and 1980s still populated with the giants of the era of the Second Vatican Council, meaning prelates who’d risen to prominence after the watershed Catholic event of the 20th century. Such talent is not evenly distributed in every generation, and it may not be fair to Francis to blame him for not finding what doesn’t exist.
Third, we live in an era of such political extremism that the whole concept of a “loyal opposition” is a tougher sell than it was in the John Paul era. Francis may reasonably be concerned that should he elevate an alternative to his point of view to the College of Cardinals, the “opposition” part of the formula might be more pronounced than the “loyal,” resulting in even greater division and fragmentation.
However one explains it, the fact remains that for those wanting a break with the Pope Francis approach, it’s difficult right now to know who their candidate might be.
Of course, one might also have argued that after more than 30 years of the John Paul II/Benedict XVI agenda, it was inevitable that the next pope would follow their lead … and we all know how that turned out.
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2022/07/pondering-the-lack-of-a-loyal-opposition-in-franciss-college-of-cardinals
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6. Some Muslims, Jews welcome court ruling allowing football coach to pray, By Yonat Shimron, The Washington Post, July 16, 2022, Pg. B2
Conservative Christians cheered the Supreme Court ruling last week that found the Constitution protects a high school football coach’s right to pray at the 50-yard line.
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For conservative Christians, who have long criticized the separation of church and state as well as the neutrality principle, it was one more in a string of resounding court victories.
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But now, some-minority faith leaders who previously looked to separation of church and state as a judicial concept that can protect their equality, are rethinking their positions.
“Fighting religion altogether and trying to ban it will only make things worse,” said Imam Abdullah Antepli, associate professor of the practice of public policy and interfaith relations at Duke University and Duke Divinity School. “We should own religion and claim it and claim our religious liberties.”
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Asma Uddin, a visiting law professor at Catholic University who is also Muslim and represents minority faiths in constitutional legal cases, agreed that the Kennedy case helps the cause of religious freedom.
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Elana Stein Hain, a Jewish educator and director of leadership education at the Shalom Hartman Institute, also wondered if the ruling might not empower minority faiths, such as Judaism.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/07/15/some-muslims-jews-welcome-court-ruling-allowing-football-coach-pray/
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7. Georgia abortion law challenge now focused on ‘personhood’, By Kate Brumback, Associated Press, July 16, 2022
Lawyers for the state of Georgia urged a federal appeals court to allow the state’s 2019 abortion law to take effect now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
Ruling in a case out of Mississippi, the Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had protected the right to an abortion. Because the groups challenging Georgia’s law relied on that precedent, they “now have no case,” lawyers for the state wrote in a brief submitted Friday to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for groups challenging the law acknowledged that the ruling allows the state’s ban on many abortions to take effect. But they argued in their brief that a provision that grants “personhood” to a fetus should remain blocked.
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-georgia-04f023ee7027bedf0e101dc0d9977971
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8. Father Joseph McShane Has Faith in Education, The outgoing president of Fordham University believes colleges should promote a ‘culture of encounter’, By Emily Bobrow, The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2022, Pg. C6
Fordham University, a Catholic institution in New York City, made news this year for appointing a lay woman as president. For a university run by Jesuit priests for nearly 200 years, the move seemed radical, but it was also on trend. More than half of the country’s 27 Jesuit colleges and universities are now run by lay presidents, several of them women.
Father Joseph M. McShane, who retired as Fordham’s president on June 30, says that this is a sign of progress. He notes that the Society of Jesus, an academically minded Catholic order better known as the Jesuits, has long played a leading role in education. “That’s the work we’ve been about ever since we opened our first school in 1548 in Sicily,” he says over the phone on his last day in his Fordham office. “What we’re seeing is God is calling more people to share in this ministry.”
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Fr. McShane, 73, notes that there is still real demand for a university education that includes a reverence for the divine. During his 19 years as president, Fordham increased enrollments, diversified its student body, expanded its footprint and quadrupled its endowment to more than $1 billion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/father-joseph-mcshane-has-faith-in-education-11657902253?
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9. House votes to restore abortion rights, Senate odds dim, By Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press, July 15, 2022
The House has voted to restore abortion rights nationwide in Democrats’ first legislative response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The bill has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. Yet voting marks the beginning of a new era in the debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the court’s decision.
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Republicans spoke forcefully against the two bills, praising the Supreme Court’s decision and warning that the legislation would go further than Roe ever did when it comes to legalizing abortion.
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bills-house-vote-fc24d99f184d7aeec4926a6520311da5
__________________________________________________________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. |
