1. Maureen Ferguson: Sen. Casey, Democrats abandon pro-life roots, By Maureen Ferguson, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 3, 2022, 12:00 AM
This week, the United States Senate returned to Washington amid mounting crises at home and abroad: war, inflation, a violent crime wave and the lingering damage of the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet the Senate’s first order of business did not address any of them. Instead, the Democratic majority took up the most extreme, undemocratic abortion bill ever introduced in Congress.
The move was a textbook case of the Democratic Party’s transformation from a blue-collar coalition made strong by defending the weak to its new identity as an engine of elite, woke extremism. And it was another chapter in the sad, parallel descent of Pennsylvania’s Sen. Bob Casey Jr. from a principled defender of the unborn to a believer in abortion as a sacred right.
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This kind of partisan extremism may be shocking to the millions of Americans who, like Sen. Casey’s father, are proudly pro-life, culturally conservative Democrats. But it is no longer surprising.
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Mr. Casey’s flip-flopping abandonment of the unborn may dishonor his father’s legacy and stain his own. It may cost Democrats their moral inheritance as the party of “the little guy.” It will almost certainly contribute to Democrats’ electoral loses this November. But better that, he has concluded, than risk Planned Parenthood or any woke special interest ever being “v. Casey” again.
Maureen Ferguson is a senior fellow for The Catholic Association.
https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2022/03/03/Maureen-Ferguson-Sen-Casey-Democrats-abandon-pro-life-roots/stories/202203030018
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2. U.S. bishops back high school football coach in Supreme Court prayer case, By John Lavenburg, Crux, March 3, 2022
The U.S. bishops conference had a friend-of-the-court brief filed on its behalf on March 2 in support of a former high school football coach who sued a school district after he lost his job in 2015 for refusing to stop kneeling and praying on the fifty-yard line after games.
Joseph Kennedy, the coach, eventually sued the Bremerton School District in Washington State in 2016 over its stance that he couldn’t continue his post-game ritual. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on Jan. 14.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2022/03/u-s-bishops-back-high-school-football-coach-in-supreme-court-prayer-case
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3. Pope Francis to visit Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in July, By Catholic News Agency, March 3, 2022, 4:26 PM
Pope Francis will visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in July, the Vatican announced on Thursday.
The Holy See press office said on March 3 that the pope would visit the African nations on July 2-7, “at the invitation of their respective heads of state and bishops.”
He will spend July 2-5 in the Congolese cities of Kinshasa and Goma, and July 5-7 in the South Sudanese capital Juba.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250555/pope-francis-to-visit-democratic-republic-of-congo-and-south-sudan-in-july
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4. A pro-life spring arrives in Virginia, By Marjorie Dannenfelser, The Washington Post, March 2, 2022, 2:00 PM
It took persistence, but the commonwealth finally has pro-life leadership in Richmond. Now-Gov. Youngkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares are wasting no time getting to work for Virginia’s women and children.
In stark contrast to his predecessor Northam, who spent Good Friday of all days signing legislation to expand abortion, roll back informed consent protections for women and even allow personnel who aren’t doctors to carry out abortions, Youngkin has outlined his pro-life policy commitments — including advocating legislation to limit late-term abortions when unborn children can feel pain and working to stop taxpayer-funded abortions — and will draw upon faith, science and public consensus to safeguard the vulnerable.
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Fittingly, Youngkin, Miyares and Earle-Sears all tweeted their messages of support for the pro-life movement the day of the march, the largest annual demonstration in the United States for the human rights cause that unites us.
That same day, Miyares filed a motion urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion limit and return the right to set abortion policy to the people of each state and their elected representatives. The motion reverses the Northam administration’s stance in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case in which the court will address the constitutionality of pre-viability limits on abortion.
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Now the court could finally remove itself from policymaking decisions about abortion that rightly belong in the arena of democracy. Every state and Congress would then be able to proceed with a debate that the court froze in time 50 years ago, to find consensus and to allow the will of the people to enter the law.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/02/pro-life-spring-arrives-virginia/
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5. Sen. John Kennedy urges Justice Dept. to crack down on anti-Catholic crime, vandalism, Vandalism, arson against Catholic institutions prompt calls for federal response, By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, March 2, 2022
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, prodded the Justice Department on Wednesday to act against rising crime targeting Catholic churches and worshipers, saying he has received no response since raising the issue in 2020.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Mr. Kennedy cited numerous examples of attacks on Catholic churches and institutions, including arson, vandalism and beheading of holy statues.
“If the government continues to let these crimes go unpunished, it will further inhibit the people’s practice and enjoyment of their fundamental, constitutional right,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Thus, I again ask that the DOJ increase efforts to identify and prosecute criminals targeting Catholic people and property so that the tens of millions of Catholics in our country can continue to practice their faith safely.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/2/sen-john-kennedy-urges-merrick-garland-crack-down-/
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6. Biden balks at explaining abortion stance to EWTN correspondent, By Christine Rousselle, Catholic News Agency, March 2, 2022, 1:34 PM
U.S. President Joe Biden (D), a Catholic, declined to discuss why he supports abortion rights despite Church teaching prior to boarding Marine One ahead of a flight to Duluth on Wednesday, March 2.
“I don’t want to get into a debate with you about theology,” said Biden, after being asked by EWTN Correspondent Owen Jensen about how he is able to reconcile his Catholic faith with his public support of abortion. “I’m not going to make a judgment for other people.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250550/biden-balks-at-explaining-abortion-stance-to-ewtn-correspondent
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7. Did a cyberattack disrupt Archbishop Cordileone’s rosary for Ukraine?, By Catholic News Agency, March 2, 2022, 7:25 PM
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone’s online “Rosary for Peace in Ukraine” Wednesday was disrupted by a suspected cyberattack, according to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which reported the incident to the FBI.
A suspiciously large surge of requests to access the event temporarily knocked the archdiocese’s website offline, the archdiocese said.
“The evidence strongly suggests it was a cyberattack,” Father Patrick Summerhays, vicar general and moderator of the curia, said in a statement Wednesday night. The rosary webpage was determined to be responsible for the outage, he said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250553/cyberattack-archbishop-cordileones-rosary-for-ukraine
___________________________________________________________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. |
