1. Plan to honor abortion providers is withdrawn, By Teo Armus, The Washington Post, March 10, 2022, Pg. B4
A plan by Alexandria’s mayor to publicly honor the city’s abortion providers at a local government meeting this week was scrapped after drawing criticism from religious leaders and conservative media outlets.
Whole Woman’s Health, one of two abortion providers in the Northern Virginia suburb of D.C., had approached a city lawmaker to ask for an in-person proclamation – a document signed by the mayor and issued at his discretion – declaring March 10 as “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” in Alexandria.
But after an outcry from local Roman Catholic leaders and some residents, including at least one former Trump White House official, city lawmakers late last week agreed to remove the decree from the agenda for its March 8 meeting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/09/alexandria-abortion-provider-appreciation-day/
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2. Lawsuit challenges D.C. mask mandate in private schools, By Seth Mclaughlin, The Washington Times, March 10, 2022, Pg. A11
A faith-based advocacy group is suing the District of Columbia over the city’s mask mandate on behalf of parents who send their elementary school children to Catholic schools.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city government are violating the First Amendment rights of the students in private schools by requiring them to wear masks after having lifted the COVID-19 mandate for most other activities, including at crowded bars and restaurants, gyms and sports venues.
“And yet, the children who attend Catholic schools in the District must continue to wear masks in their classrooms all day,” the lawsuit reads.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/9/lawsuit-challenges-dc-mask-mandate-private-schools/
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3. Catholic leaders say bill could make Colorado ‘most radical abortion state’, By Catholic News Service, March 10, 2022
The Colorado Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, issued an action alert calling on pro-life supporters to make their objections known to a bill it said “could make Colorado the most radical abortion state in the country.”
The conference also noted the measure, the Reproductive Health Equity Act, was “rushed to a committee hearing” March 9.
The rushed hearing “is intended to suppress the voices of millions of Coloradans who oppose the murder of children through abortion,” the conference said. “If enacted, the RHEA will codify (into state law) abortion up-to-the moment of birth for any reason.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2022/03/catholic-leaders-say-bill-could-make-colorado-most-radical-abortion-state
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4. Top Vatican official casts doubt on second Francis-Kirill meeting, By Elise Ann Allen, Crux, March 10, 2022
In new comments to Italian media, the Vatican’s Secretary of State has said recent remarks by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will only make tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war worse, and said a second meeting with the pope is unlikely.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin also spoke of his recent phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, saying the conversation proved to be unhelpful.
Speaking to Italian media at the close of an event called Sui Tetti, or “On the Rooftops,” March 9, Parolin said “Kirill’s words do not favor and do not promote an understanding.”
“On the contrary, they risk aggravating spirits even more and going towards an escalation and not resolving the crisis in a peaceful way,” he said.
In recent days, Kirill, who until recently has refrained from making any direct remarks in favor of or against Russia’s war with Ukraine, has delivered two sermons in which he departed from a neutral stance and conveyed a clear pro-Russia position in line with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2022/03/top-vatican-official-casts-doubt-on-second-francis-kirill-meeting
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5. Nordic Catholic bishops: German ‘Synodal Way’ fills us with worry, By Catholic News Agency, March 10, 2022, 4:00 PM
Nordic Catholic bishops issued an open letter on Wednesday expressing alarm at the direction of the German “Synodal Way.”
In the March 9 letter, they cautioned against “capitulation to the Zeitgeist” and “impoverishment of the content of our faith,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
While acknowledging the challenges facing the Catholic Church in Germany, they said that “the orientation, method, and content of the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany fill us with worry.”
The Synodal Way is a multi-year process addressing the way power is exercised in the Church, sexual morality, the priesthood, and the role of women in the wake of a devastating clerical abuse crisis in Germany.
The Nordic bishops published their letter after Synodal Way participants voted in favor of draft texts calling for the abolition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church, the ordination of women priests, same-sex blessings, and changes to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250628/nordic-catholic-bishops-german-synodal-way-fills-us-with-worry
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6. Father Jacques Hamel murder: Catholic archbishop says ‘justice is done’ as 4 are convicted, By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, March 10, 2022, 5:00 AM
Four men accused of terrorist conspiracy after the murder of the French Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel in 2016 were convicted on Wednesday.
“Justice is done,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen said after the verdict on March 9. “[The court] has discerned the good from the bad as much as possible, it has judged and for the good of society, for the good of the men present in the dock.”
The trial against four people on charges of terrorist conspiracy in Hamel’s murder began on Feb. 14.
The 85-year-old priest was killed in a terrorist attack while he offered Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the northern French archdiocese of Rouen, on July 26, 2016.
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Three of the men convicted received between eight and 13 years in prison. A life sentence was given to a fourth man, a known Islamic State recruiter who was tried in absentia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250629/father-jacques-hamel-murder-catholic-archbishop-says-justice-is-done-as-4-are-convicted
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7. Guatemala increases abortion penalty, bans same-sex marriage, By Sonia Pérez D., Associated Press, March 9, 2022, 3:39 PM
Guatemalan lawmakers have increased prison sentences for women who have abortions, bucking a recent trend in Latin America toward expanding access to the procedures.
As some of Latin America’s largest countries — Mexico, Argentina, Colombia — have expanded abortion access in the past two years, there remain countries where conservative religious trends continue to hold sway.
Late Tuesday — International Women’s Day — Guatemala’s Congress passed a “Protection of Life and Family” law that also targeted the LGBTQ community.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/guatemala-increases-abortion-penalty-bans-same-sex-marriage/2022/03/09/1a5fd31a-9fd8-11ec-9438-255709b6cddc_story.html
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8. Pro-Life Legal Experts Say Biden’s Supreme Court Pick Ketanji Brown Jackson Is No Moderate, By Lauretta Brown, National Catholic Register, March 9, 2022
As the U.S. Senate prepares to evaluate President Biden’s first pick for the Supreme Court, pro-life legal experts assert that she is a far-left choice who will likely be no friend to the movement defending the rights of the unborn.
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Jackson co-wrote the amicus brief on behalf of abortion providers who supported a “buffer zone” that prevented pro-life counselors in the Bay State from approaching women outside abortion businesses.
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Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, a legal advocacy group, told the Register that language in that brief “betrayed assumptions about clinic protesters that I don’t think are fair.”
The brief’s description of the pro-life demonstrators as a “noisy crowd” did not conform with her own experience with such protests.
“Unfortunately, when judges and justices allow their preconceived kind of political notions of what’s really going on to sneak in rather than confining themselves to the actual judicial and legal questions before them, it can lead them to effectively be doing improper fact-finding about what’s happening,” said Severino, who is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/pro-life-legal-experts-say-biden-s-supreme-court-pick-ketanji-brown-jackson-is-no-moderate
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9. Massachusetts top court considers challenge to ban on assisted suicide, By Katie Yoder, Catholic News Agency, March 9, 2022, 6:00 PM
The highest court in Massachusetts considered a challenge brought by two doctors against the state’s prohibition of physician-assisted suicide on Wednesday
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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments March 9 in Kligler v. Healey, which asks “Whether a physician may be prosecuted for manslaughter for prescribing medication used by a competent, terminally ill person to commit suicide.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250627/massachusetts-top-court-considers-challenge-to-ban-on-assisted-suicide
___________________________________________________________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. |
