TCA Podcast, – “Conversations with Consequences,” Episode 159 – TCA Team Talks Supreme Court Leak & Father Dave Pivonka on Gender Ideology
With the Supreme Court leak this week of the Dobb’s decision, Dr. Grazie Christie chats with TCA colleagues Ashley McGuire and Maureen Ferguson about this unprecedented moment, why Justice Alito’s reasoning is a courageous gift to American children, and how we can best mobilize to help women choose life. Franciscan University president Father Dave Pivonka joins at the bottom of the hour sharing why biology matters and the dangers of gender ideology–especially within collegiate sports. Father Roger Landry also offers us an inspiring homily for this Sunday’s Gospel. Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio.
https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-159-tca-team-talks-supreme-court-leak-father-dave-pivonka-on-gender-ideology/
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1. Did Supreme Nominees Lie to Congress?, By The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2022, Pg. A16, Editorial
One media narrative congealing after this week’s Supreme Court leak is that President Trump’s nominees lied to Congress by claiming they wouldn’t overturn the abortion precedent of Roe v. Wade. So allow us to check the tape—and explain why respecting past decisions doesn’t bind the Court to stand by serious constitutional errors.
Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer accused “several” of the “conservative Justices” of having “lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation,” among other modest claims in a statement after Politico published a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. The insinuation is that Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett promised Congress they wouldn’t touch Roe.
The truth is available to anyone willing to call up the C-Span archives.
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In other words, some mistakes are so egregious they require correction. A case in point is the “separate but equal” doctrine allowed in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that was finally overturned in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. It took 58 years, but the constitutional principles that animated Justice John Marshall Harlan’s Plessy dissent were finally vindicated. The echoes of Plessy resonate in Roe.
Overruling precedent, Justice Alito writes, is “a serious matter.” But “Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided, and Casey perpetuated its errors, and the errors do not concern some arcane corner of the law of little importance to the American people.”
Americans may disagree with this analysis, and many understandably dread the political brawl over abortion that would follow. But if some version of Justice Alito’s opinion is adopted, the Justices who sign onto it will have done what they promised Congress: Decide cases on the legal and constitutional merits.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/did-supreme-court-nominees-lie-to-congress-neil-gorsuch-brett-kavanaugh-amy-coney-barrett-11651785479?
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2. Abortion on demand doesn’t make it ‘safe’ or ‘rare’, Project Rachel provides support to those with post-abortive trauma, By Scott Walker, The Washington Times, May 6, 2022, Pg. B2, Opinion
Vicki Thorn would be so happy to hear the news about the pending decision by the Supreme Court. In 1984, she founded a post-abortion healing ministry called Project Rachel. Over the years, she worked with thousands of women and men who were involved with an abortion. Through her work, she saw how many of them suffered for years with remorse, depression, anxiety, nightmares and worries about their “choice.” Vicki and the team at Project Rachel offered them a way of healing.
Many of the people who responded with anger and rage to the news this week about the probable overturning of Roe v. Wade likely had their own experiences with abortion. That would likely explain the reactions. They were told it would provide a quick and easy fix for their “unwanted pregnancy.” But they were not told the full story.
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Vicki Thorn spent her life trying to save the lives of innocent babies. She also ministered to those who needed God’s grace to heal from the trauma of an abortion. We need to reflect on that grace and react to the anger and rage we see these days with love and compassion — as we make the case for life.
Scott Walker is the president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/5/abortion-on-demand-doesnt-make-it-safe-or-rare/
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3. The End of Roe v. Wade Will Be Good for America, The mistaken abortion decision, a product of vanity, roiled and distorted our politics and poisoned our culture., By Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2022, 6:34 PM
Let’s start with true anger and end with honest hope. The alarm many felt at the leaking of an entire draft Supreme Court decision shouldn’t be allowed to dissipate as time passes. Such a thing has never happened. Justice Samuel Alito’s preliminary opinion being taken from the court, without permission or right, and given to the press was an act of sabotage by a vandal. It hardly matters whether the leaker was of the left or right. It reflected the same spirit as the Jan. 6 Capitol riot—irresponsible destructiveness. As the book has been thrown at the rioters, it should be thrown at the leaker.
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I respect and agree with the Alito draft, didn’t think Roe was correct or even logical, and came to see the decision as largely a product of human vanity. Of all the liberal jurists who have faulted it, the one who sticks in the mind was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who after questioning Roe’s reasoning said, in 1985, that it appeared “to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.” It did.
I am pro-life for the most essential reason: That’s a baby in there, a human child. We cannot accept as a society—we really can’t bear the weight of this fact, which is why we keep fighting—that we have decided that we can extinguish the lives of our young. Another reason, and maybe it veers on mysticism, is that I believe the fact of abortion, that it exists throughout the country, that we endlessly talk about it, that the children grow up hearing this and absorbing it and thinking, “We end the life within the mother here,” “It’s just some cells”—that all of this has released a kind of poison into the air, that we breathed it in for 50 years and it damaged everything. Including of course our politics.
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But the end of Roe could be a historic gift for both parties, a chance to become their better selves.
And if Roe is indeed overturned, God bless our country that can make such a terrible, coldhearted mistake and yet, half a century later, redress it, right it, turn it around. Only a thinking nation could do that. Only a feeling nation could do that. We’re not dead yet, there are still big things going on here.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-end-of-roe-will-be-good-for-america-supreme-court-draft-leak-decision-abortion-pro-life-choice-justices-alito-11651787057?
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4. Is Ukraine’s War Just? The Pope Hasn’t Said, Pope Francis has hesitated to invoke the Catholic ‘just war’ doctrine that would recognize the moral legitimacy of Ukraine’s self-defense, By Francis X. Rocca, The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2022, 9:54 AM
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Pope Francis has made clear that he condemns the “violent aggression against Ukraine” and sympathizes with “victims whose innocent blood cries out to heaven.”
But the pope has also raised questions about whether he thinks the Ukrainians have a right to defend themselves through the use of arms. He has on several occasions said that weapons aren’t the solution to the war; called it madness for countries to increase their military spending in response to Russia’s aggression; and spoken against the increased use of sanctions in response to the invasion. He has twice cited Mahatma Gandhi’s advocacy of nonviolent resistance, and said emphatically that there is no such thing as a “just war.”
Pope Francis has in the past suggested that military action can be justified. As cardinal in 2012, the year before he was elected pope, he honored Argentine soldiers who died during the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands as “sons of the fatherland” who had gone out in its defense “to claim what belonged to the fatherland and had been usurped.” As pope in 2016, he wrote to a conference on nonviolent conflict resolution, reminding participants that the Second Vatican Council had stated that “governments cannot be denied the right to legitimate defense once every means of peaceful settlement has been exhausted.”
But he has more recently expressed greater wariness, writing in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti (“Brothers, all”) that “it is easy to fall into an overly broad interpretation of this potential right” to self-defense by force, especially given the threat posed to civilians by modern weapons of mass destruction. “It is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war,’” he wrote.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-ukraines-war-just-the-pope-hasnt-said-11651758894?page=1
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5. Hogan won’t release funds to expand abortion training, By Brian Witte, Associated Press, May 5, 2022
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan won’t grant a request by the state’s comptroller on Wednesday to immediately make $3.5 million available to pay for training to prepare medical professionals other than physicians to perform abortions when a new law takes effect this summer, a spokesman said.
Michael Ricci, the spokesman, said in a statement that the Republican governor “firmly believes, as stated in his veto of this partisan measure, that non-licensed physicians should not be performing these medical procedures.”
“Suddenly releasing taxpayer dollars for this purpose would run counter to those concerns about setting back the standards for women’s health,” Ricci wrote in an email.
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-health-larry-hogan-f3598a08b63cbf470f0bbc4bc2360415
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6. Cardinal: Pope OK’d spending 1M euros to free kidnapped nun, By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, May 5, 2022, 3:51 PM
Pope Francis authorized spending up to 1 million euros to free a Colombian nun kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali, a cardinal testified Thursday, revealing previously secret papal approval to hire a British security firm to find the nun and secure her freedom.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s bombshell testimony could pose serious security implications for the Vatican and Catholic Church, since he provided evidence that the pope was apparently willing to pay ransom to Islamic militants to free a nun, who was eventually let go last year.
Ransom payment are rarely if ever confirmed, precisely to dissuade future kidnappings, and it’s not known how much — if any Vatican money — actually ended up in the hands of the militants. Prosecutors have accused a Becciu co-defendant of embezzling around half the amount on high-end luxury items for herself.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cardinal-pope-authorized-1m-payment-to-free-kidnapped-nun/2022/05/05/491f2078-cc99-11ec-b7ee-74f09d827ca6_story.html?variant=c44b726edf25a662
___________________________________________________________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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