1. Pope apologizes for ‘catastrophic’ school policy in Canada, By Nicole Winfield and Peter Smith, Associated Press, July 26, 2022
Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations.
“I am deeply sorry,” Francis said to applause from school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta. He called the school policy a “disastrous error” that was incompatible with the Gospel and said further investigation and healing is needed.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.
In the first event of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage,” Francis traveled to the lands of four Cree nations to pray at a cemetery and then deliver the long-sought apology at nearby powwow ceremonial grounds. Four chiefs escorted the pontiff in a wheelchair to the site near the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, and presented him with a feathered headdress after he spoke, making him an honorary leader of the community.
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While the pope acknowledged blame, he also made clear that Catholic missionaries were merely cooperating with and implementing the government policy, which he termed the “colonizing mentality of the powers.”
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-canada-apology-visit-137ad23719603e9d370257f257ec0163
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2. Pope’s Canada Visit Highlights Complex Relationship Between Catholicism and Indigenous Cultures, Pontiff will take part in a lakeside ceremony that incorporates indigenous elements, By Francis X. Rocca, The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2022, 5:35 AM
Pope Francis’ visit to Canada, which he has described as a penitential pilgrimage, is set to take a more celebratory turn on Tuesday when he offers Mass in an Edmonton soccer stadium before taking part in a traditional lakeside ceremony with indigenous Catholics.
Although organizers of the papal visit and the pope himself have made it clear that its purpose is to apologize for Catholics’ role in what Francis called government-sponsored “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation,” his public appearances on his second full day in the country will highlight a more harmonious legacy of the church’s relationship with indigenous Canadians.
On Monday, the pope apologized repeatedly for Catholic participation in the country’s system of residential schools which, for more than a century, assimilated indigenous children to white culture. On Tuesday, he will point to the church’s practice of presenting its teachings in forms compatible with local cultures.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/kansas-abortion-amendment-is-closely-watched-ahead-of-other-state-referendums-11658579068?
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3. Bishop Paprocki on abortion, Communion and the boardroom, By The Pillar, July 26, 2022, Interview
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade, many states have acted to limit access to abortion. At the same time, it’s become a trend for major companies to announce that they’ll pay for their employees to undergo abortions, and even cover travel costs if that’s needed.
In his diocesan magazine last week, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, called on Catholics “to keep these companies in mind and avoid buying their products whenever possible.”
The bishop also said that corporate officers responsible for those policies were engaged in formal cooperation with the evil of abortion, and should not receive Holy Communion — he issued a similar warning for Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden, who have promoted or launched policies aim ensuring access to abortion for federal workers.
Bishop Paprocki spoke with The Pillar on Monday about “formal cooperation” in abortion by Catholic politicians and corporate officers, and the ways in which Catholics can engage in ethical investing and consumerism.
He also discussed the responsibilities of bishops to teach on the ethics of engaging with abortion in politics or corporate life.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/bishop-paprocki-on-abortion-communion
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4. If Sacramento crisis pregnancy centers closed, poor women would lose services they need, By Melinda Henneberger, The Sacramento Bee, July 25, 2022, 5:00 AM, Opinion
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has said that she wants every single crisis pregnancy center in the country shuttered, and has introduced legislation that she hopes will accomplish that goal.
“Those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one,” Warren said. “We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country.”
Are we really so easily deceived that we can’t tell the difference between a clinic that performs abortions and one that does not? I believe women who say that’s what happened to them, but it’s not true that this is how all such places operate.
And whatever your view of abortion rights, for someone without resources who wants to carry her baby to term but needs all the help she can get, the closure of these clinics would be a real loss.
Because just as Planned Parenthood and other clinics that perform abortions offer services that crisis pregnancy centers do not, the reverse is also true. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, California has been held up as an abortion destination. But in Sacramento and across the state, poor women who’ve decided to continue their pregnancies still need the kind of help that clinics that do perform abortions don’t provide.
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So what gaps are Sacramento Life filling exactly? A fully licensed and accredited medical clinic, it signs clients up for Medi-Cal and WIC and finds them, doctors, including pediatricians, for ongoing care. It’s non-religious and does not proselytize, but does offer prenatal vitamins and care, parenting classes, fatherhood mentors for men, big-ticket items such as strollers, car seats, and cribs, and a monthly supply of diapers, baby food, and clothes for two years. All of this is free — paid for through private donations.
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Matzke, of Alternatives Pregnancy, testified at the Senate hearing that she sees the man who came to the clinic door with a machete early one recent morning, before a security guard scared him away, as part of the wave of post-Roe attacks on clinics like hers. She sees the woman who tried to drive away with the clinic’s mobile van several weeks ago in that same light.
Times and crimes being what they are, these incidents might have had nothing to do with abortion. But of course, she’d fear that they were related, given the many documented attacks that have occurred across the country. And that her clinic recently spent $150,000 on enhanced security rather than on services for those in need is something we all ought to be able to see as worse than a waste.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article263786933.html
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5. HHS raises religious liberty fears with gender identity civil rights proposal, By Cassidy Morrison, The Washington Examiner, July 25, 2022, 4:22 PM
The Biden administration proposed a rule Monday to expand federal healthcare nondiscrimination protections for transgender people that is expected to reignite a conflict over religious freedom for healthcare professionals.
The proposed rule formally restores language in Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that protects patients in all federally supported healthcare programs from discrimination based on gender identity. It explicitly reverses a Trump administration-era rule that narrowed the scope of the nondiscrimination provision of the law, Section 1557 , to define sex as biological sex rather than encompassing gender identity. It would ensure specific health insurance coverage protections for transgender individuals.
The proposed rule is expected to generate religious freedom disputes over concerns that healthcare providers who morally or religiously object to providing transgender healthcare services, such as puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery, would not be legally protected if they refused. The proposal was expected to come out in April alongside a second rule that stopped insurers from limiting coverage of essential health benefits, the list of services that Obamacare plans must cover, based on gender identity in treating gender dysphoria. The second rule was finalized, but the one concerning Section 1557 was delayed because the Department of Health and Human Services decided it was “prudent” to address the discrimination issue at a later time.
The Biden administration said the proposed rule is meant to align Obamacare’s nondiscrimination language with a 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the justices ruled an employer who fires a worker based on their sexual orientation or gender identity violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It is all the services and programs that we administered at HHS that would have that protection attached to them,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We believe that this will restore and strengthen civil rights protections for patients and consumers throughout the country. It will promote gender and health equity, especially in communities that have often been deprived of some of those protections.”
Becerra said he expects the rule to garner lawsuits alleging infringement on religious liberties once it has been finalized, which is not expected to come until next year.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/hhs-raises-religious-liberty-fears-with-gender-identity-civil-rights-proposal
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6. University of Michigan Medical Students Walk Out on Pro-Life Speaker at Initiation Ceremony, By Charles Hilu, National Review, July 24, 2022, 8:44 PM, Opinion
Incoming University of Michigan Medical School students staged a walkout of the school’s White Coat Ceremony Sunday to protest the choice of a pro-life doctor as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
Students had previously attempted to pressure the administration to cancel the speech of Dr. Kristin Collier, a pro-life assistant professor of medicine at the university; they submitted a petition claiming that the choice of her as a speaker made them “doubt whether the school will continue to advocate for reproductive rights.”
However, the school’s dean, Dr. Marschall Runge, refused to disinvite her, citing the “critical importance of diversity of personal thought and ideas, which is foundational to academic freedom and excellence.”
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On its face, this collective decision by many of the incoming students is inappropriate for civil society and academia. Whenever one of these incidents occurs, we rightfully lament the damage it does to academic freedom.
Collier’s speech was not political at all, nor was it planned to be. She did not talk about abortion or praise the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She simply gave advice to the students before they entered their profession.
Students wanted to cancel her simply because publicly expressed pro-life beliefs. They could not stand to hear from a speaker with whom they disagreed, even when she was not espousing her views to them.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/university-of-michigan-medical-students-walk-out-on-pro-life-speaker-at-initiation-ceremony/?
__________________________________________________________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. |
