1. North Carolina GOP overrides veto of 12-week abortion limit, allowing it to become law, By Hannah Schoenbaum, Gary D. Robertson and Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, May 17, 2023 Legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will become law in North Carolina after the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto late Tuesday. The House completed the second and final part of the override vote after a similar three-fifths majority — the fraction necessary — voted for the override earlier Tuesday in the Senate. The party-line outcomes represent a major victory for Republican legislative leaders who needed every GOP member on board to enact the law over Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition. Cooper vetoed the measure over the weekend after spending last week traveling around the state to persuade at least one Republican to side with him on the override, which would be enough to uphold his veto. But in the end, the four Republicans targeted by Cooper — including one who recently switched from the Democratic Party — voted to override.…https://apnews.com/article/abortion-veto-override-north-carolina-4282913637b499490494dd3e3cce3478__________________________________________________________ 2. Vatican cooperates with new Rome probe of ‘Vatican Girl’ case, By Crux, May 17, 2023 After the Vatican opened an investigation last December and the Italian parliament is currently considering its own probe, the city of Rome too has announced a new inquest into the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, at the time the 15-year-old daughter of an employee of the Prefecture of the Papal Household whose family lived in a Vatican apartment. Orlandi’s case recently was popularized by the Netflix series “Vatican Girl,” and most observers credit the flurry of new investigations, at least in part, to the heightened public interest created by the documentary. The chief prosecutor of Rome, roughly equivalent to a district attorney in the United States, announced the new investigation this week. It will be the third such probe by the Roman procurator’s office in the 40 years since Orlandi disappeared. The first unfolded between 1983 and 1997, and the second from 2008 to 2015. … https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2023/05/vatican-cooperates-with-new-rome-probe-of-vatican-girl-case__________________________________________________________ 3. New head of Vatican charity Caritas looks to future after papal firings, By Nicole Winfield, May 16, 2023, 10:51 AM The new head of Caritas Internationalis said Tuesday that the Vatican’s preeminent charity would look to the future of its global aid mission, seeking to close out a tumultuous period that prompted Pope Francis to oust the previous leadership team. The Vatican presented the charity’s new hierarchy following elections by representatives of the 162 national Caritas chapters, who met in Rome starting last week. It was the first general assembly since Francis in November removed the Caritas president, vice presidents, secretary general, treasurer and ecclesiastic assistant after an outside investigation into bullying complaints found management problems at the Rome headquarters. The new secretary-general, Alistair Dutton, acknowledged the chapter representatives had questions about the pope’s unusual intervention and that he himself feared walking into an assembly “where people were angry and frustrated and were looking backwards.” … https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/16/vatican-pope-caritas-charity-women-africa/27ef2082-f3f9-11ed-918d-012572d64930_story.html__________________________________________________________ 4. Catholic Bishops to FDA: Don’t Allow Over-the-Counter Use of ‘Minipill’ Contraceptive, They echo other critics who say the drug’s side effects mean patients should have physician supervision while taking the drug., By Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, May 16, 2023 Federal regulators with the Food and Drug Administration should reject proposed over-the-counter use of the progestin-only “minipill” contraceptive, the U.S. bishops have said. They echo other critics who say the drug’s side effects mean patients should have physician supervision while taking the drug. “It is concerning that the FDA has a recommendation before it to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraception when there is strong evidence of the many harmful risks to women’s health,” Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, said May 15. An advisory panel to the FDA on May 10 unanimously voted to recommend approval of the Opill birth-control pill for over-the-counter availability. A final decision is expected this summer. … https://www.ncregister.com/cna/catholic-bishops-to-fda-don-t-allow-over-the-counter-use-of-minipill-contraceptive__________________________________________________________ 5. Baltimore archbishop pushes back against Maryland sex abuse report, By John Lavenburg, Crux, May 16, 2023 Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore has spoken out against headlines related to a recent Maryland Attorney General report on clergy sex abuse, saying many of the news stories don’t “provide a full or completely accurate picture” of the “30-year history of the Archdiocese’s accountability and enforcement efforts.” The 454-page report, published April 5, details more than 600 instances of child sex abuse by 156 abusers from the archdiocese. According to the report, the majority of the abuse took place between the 1940s and 2002 – the year the U.S. Bishops implemented the Dallas Charter, establishing a set of procedures dioceses must follow to address allegations of sexual abuse. … “I want to state unequivocally: No one who has been credibly accused of child abuse is in ministry today or employed by the Archdiocese,” Lori said in a May 12 statement. “Some members of clergy whose names have been tied more recently to media coverage focusing on a ‘cover up’ are, in fact, some of the very people who helped force a culture change that rooted out evil and shut out attempts to conceal the failures or hide abusers,” the archbishop continued. “How is it cover up if you report everything to law enforcement?” More specifically, Lori went on to say that that generation of archdiocesan leadership helped the archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection and Independent Review Board, and were often the ones who made reports on alleged abuse. He added these individuals took the pioneering steps to publish the archdiocese’s list of credibly accused and implement policies for screening and training of “tens of thousands of employees, volunteers, members of clergy and children.” With that said, Lori also acknowledged that policies then weren’t as strong as the policies of today, whilst still defending the efforts and intentions of the aforementioned archdiocesan leaders. … https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2023/05/baltimore-archbishop-pushes-back-against-maryland-sex-abuse-report__________________________________________________________

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.
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