1. Pope in Canada prays for healing for ‘terrible’ colonization, By Nicole Winfield, Peter Smith, and Rob Gillies, Associated Press, July 27, 2022
Pope Francis prayed for healing Tuesday from the “terrible effects of colonization” as he led a pilgrimage to a Canadian lake that has been known to Native peoples for centuries as a sacred place of healing.
The prayer service at Lac Sainte Anne in Alberta was one of the spiritual highlights of the pontiff’s six-day visit to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools that forcibly assimilated the country’s Indigenous children into Christian society. On Monday he apologized for the “catastrophic” ways families were torn apart; the following day he transitioned to praying to help them heal from the “wounds of violence.”
“In this blessed place, where harmony and peace reign, we present to you the disharmony of our experiences, the terrible effects of colonization, the indelible pain of so many families, grandparents and children,” Francis said on the shore of the lake. “Help us to be healed of our wounds.”
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-canada-religion-north-america-edmonton-5a02def069a3e197d5cac9e71b975c85
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2. The Church Has a Duty to Correct the Powerful, By Rev. Brian A. Graebe, S.T.D., The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2022, Pg. A16, Letter to the Editor
Regarding Father James Martin’s “Abortion and the Grumbling Crowd” (Houses of Worship, July 22): The heinousness of abortion—intentional killing of the most defenseless and vulnerable among us—prompted the bishops of this country to identify it as the pre-eminent moral issue of our time. The Catholic Church identifies abortion as intrinsically evil, meaning that it is always wrong by its nature; no circumstances could ever justify it.
Many progressives risk diminishing the unique evil of abortion through false equivalences. A favorite, cited by Fr. Martin, is the death penalty. The church has always taught that the state has the inherent right to carry out capital punishment. How and when is a matter for debate.
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Another issue often cited is poverty. No one of good will wants people to remain poor, but how best to relieve poverty is a matter for prudential judgment. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish?
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The sad irony is that Fr. Martin’s approach is the true “weaponization” of the Eucharist: Every reception of communion wounds that public official’s soul and deepens its alienation from God. Withholding communion from someone in manifest, public, grave sin is not an act of unkindness, but one of love and mercy. Sometimes medicine has to sting before it can heal. When the church sees souls jeopardizing their salvation through sacrilegious communions, she would be derelict not to intervene.
Fr. Graebe is pastor of the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/catholic-church-abortion-communion-eucharist-politician-pelosi-biden-james-martin-graebe-11658789464?
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3. 80+ conservative groups urge Senate Republicans to oppose Respect for Marriage Act, By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, July 27, 2022, Pg. A2
More than 80 leading conservative groups on Tuesday urged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a letter to oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, arguing that the House-passed bill would go beyond codifying same-sex marriage and imperil religious freedom.
The letter, led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, said H.R. 8404 would force the federal government to recognize any state’s definition of marriage, including polygamy; expose faith-based groups and individuals to predatory lawsuits; and endanger the tax-exempt status of religious organizations.
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The signers represent a who’s who of conservative leaders and organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the Ethics & Public Policy Center, Samaritan’s Purse, the First Liberty Institute, the Coalition for Jewish Values, CatholicVote and the American Principles Project.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/26/80-conservative-groups-urge-senate-republicans-opp/
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4. How Every State Pro-Life Law Handles Ectopic Pregnancy and Miscarriage, By Alexandra Desanctis, National Review, July 26, 2022, 6:30 AM, Opinion
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, supporters of legal abortion have leveled the false accusation that pro-life laws threaten pregnant mothers facing medical emergencies. In particular, abortion advocates claim that laws prohibiting abortion will make it more difficult or even impossible for women suffering from an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage to receive necessary treatment.
In an ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg implants somewhere outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube. In the absence of treatment, ectopic pregnancy can cause severe and life-threatening health consequences for the mother, because there isn’t room for the child to develop. Miscarriage management, meanwhile, involves caring for a pregnant mother whose unborn child has died spontaneously. The standard of care for post-miscarriage treatment differs depending on how far along the pregnancy is.
Abortion supporters have argued that state abortion limits aren’t clear about whether these types of health care are permitted — and they have argued that, as a result of this supposed lack of clarity, doctors have declined to perform necessary and potentially life-saving procedures out of fear of reprisal from officials enforcing state pro-life laws.
This is simply not the case. If doctors are doing so — and abortion supporters have offered little evidence of a systemic problem in this regard — it is the fault of the doctors themselves, not the fault of the pro-life laws, which are eminently clear. The pro-life worldview has always held that both lives matter, that of the mother and that of her unborn child. It is always permissible to act to care for a pregnant mother whose life is at risk.
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Below is the text of every significant state abortion limitation as it pertains to exceptions for medical emergencies. Though not every law explicitly names ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage management, each is perfectly clear in its definition of abortion and clear about leaving room for doctors to act in cases of medical emergency. It’s important to note that, while many laws do explicitly name these procedures, it is not necessary to do so in order for those types of treatment to remain legal.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/how-every-state-pro-life-law-handles-ectopic-pregnancy-and-miscarriage/
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5. Luxembourg’s synod report calls for change on homosexuality, priestly celibacy, By Luke Coppen, The Pillar, July 26, 2022
Participants in the diocesan phase of the synod on synodality in Luxembourg have called for a change in Church teaching on homosexuality and the abolition of mandatory priestly celibacy.
Their appeal was cited in a 16-page report following a consultation process involving 4,590 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Luxembourg, which is led by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich.
The Jesuit cardinal will have a major role in the gathering of the world’s bishops in Rome at the end of the two-year synodal process in October 2023. Hollerich will serve as relator general of the bishops’ assembly on the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.”
Luxembourg archdiocese’s synod document, released in French on July 5, said: “The Church needs a change of view on homosexuality, to open up to marriage for all, and to abolish the obligation of celibacy for priests.”
Cardinal Hollerich said earlier this year that he believed that the “sociological-scientific foundation” of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality was “no longer correct.”
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/luxembourgs-synod-report-calls-for
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6. Chilean bishops warn new constitution places religious freedom at risk, By Catholic News Agency, July 26, 2022, 5:42 PM
In a document analyzing a proposed draft of a new constitution, the bishops of Chile warned that religious freedom will be at risk if the constitution is approved by Chileans this fall.
“By being subject to what is established in the proposed Constitution, religious freedom is put at risk, which is made worse by the fact that … the proposal doesn’t give conscientious objection a constitutional status,” the bishops charged.
The constitution’s text will be approved or rejected Sept. 4 in a plebiscite in which all Chileans will participate.
Against this background — and as a result of the bishops’ meeting that ended July 22 — the bishops spoke out to express their concern about issues with wide-ranging effects.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251887/chilean-bishops-warn-new-constitution-places-religious-freedom-at-risk
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7. Abortion ruling finally gives unborn chance for legal protection they deserve, Well-deserved legal protection finally available to unborn thanks to abortion ruling, By Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D., Fox News, July 26, 2022, 2:00 PM, Opinion
Over my 20-year career as a radiologist evaluating patients of all ages for disease and abnormality, I have been consistently moved by my youngest patients — the pre-born little boy or girl fetuses floating in the silence of their mothers’ wombs. Their lively humanity moves me, but mostly it is their utter defenselessness. Over the course of my entire professional life, these youngest patients of mine, unlike any of my other charges, lacked the most basic protection of law. To me, their doctor, who marveled over them and delighted in their delicate beauty, this was a depressing fact.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has suddenly given my littlest patients a chance to acquire some measure of legal protection.
Now, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the unborn are protected in some places. In states where the public deeply values the dignity of unborn children, the laws will be allowed to reflect that judgement. To varying degrees and at different stages of gestation, each state will democratically find the point at which to protect unborn patients like mine.
In my own state of Florida, elective terminations are now prohibited after the 15th week of gestation (à la Mississippi). That’s better than the 24-week limit Florida has been operating under for the last several decades. Remember that it is widely accepted that at 24 weeks a fetus can feel the terrible pain of dismemberment. Remember, too, that at 24 weeks an “unwanted” baby can be delivered instead of aborted and very probably survive.
Despite vehement pro-abortion declarations to the contrary, there is no abortion law in any state in America that prevents lifesaving treatment for women. Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy care will not be affected, and women’s health will not be endangered. Every law that limits abortion explicitly protects the life of the mother, allowing the separation of the baby from the mother when her life is threatened, even when this leads inevitably to the death of the baby due to prematurity. And ending later term pregnancies, as in cases of pre-eclampsia, can be done by delivering the child — avoiding abortion altogether by giving the little one a chance at life.
Of course, many liberal states are doubling down on their (mis)treatment of the unborn. In Oregon, where abortion laws are especially radical, a baby can be electively terminated (for any reason) through the 40th week of pregnancy. That’s right up until the baby takes her first breath. Medicaid pays for these barbarous elective procedures and private insurance is required to fund them. Similar laws are in effect in California and New York.
As a physician who evaluates pregnant mothers and their children, I’m glad I’m practicing in Florida and not California. The law is a teacher, and the stronger the protections for the unborn in the law, the more the public grows in its understanding of the inherent dignity of my tiniest patients.
To me, it’s long been clear: The gently grasping hand, the lips that pucker and sometimes lift in a smile, the tiny feet that the baby plants on the wall of the uterus to achieve a leisurely stretch — all these are the tender signs of humanity clamoring for our compassion. Their mothers and families certainly deserve our help to overcome the challenges they face. But so do the unborn deserve our protection and sympathy.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/abortion-ruling-finally-gives-unborn-chance-legal-protection
__________________________________________________________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. |
