1. Overturn Roe and return abortion policy to the people, By Lynn Fitch, The Washington Post, November 29, 2021, Pg. A19, Opinion
On Dec. 1, we will make the case to the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade and returning decision-making about abortion policy to the people. We recognize the magnitude of what we are asking. But the reason it represents such a monumental change is because almost 49 years ago the court put political intuition above sound legal reasoning and reached a conclusion in Roe utterly unsupported by the Constitution or the court’s own jurisprudence. It is time to correct that mistake.
There is no question that the issues involved in abortion policy are tough, complex and emotionally charged. But it is precisely because of such challenges that the Constitution gives the people the difficult task of balancing competing interests, devising compromises and developing policy. It is the core principle of democratic self-governance that U.S. citizens act on hard issues through the men and women they elect and can hold accountable at the ballot box.
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I have great faith in the American people and our elected leaders, so I am certain that when the court overturns Roe, an honest debate over true policy will ensue. It will be messy and it will be hard, and that debate may play out differently and reach different conclusions from state to state. But that is the role the Constitution gave to us, to the people, and that is the role the court needs to return to us now.
Lynn Fitch is the attorney general of Mississippi, defending the state’s abortion law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/28/mississippi-attorney-general-says-overturning-roe-will-let-voters-decide-abortion-policy/
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2. Does Abortion Promote Equality for Women?, By Nicole Ault, The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2021, Pg. A21
Here’s a measure of how far American women have progressed since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade: Then, no woman had ever been elected attorney general of a U.S. state, and none would be for another dozen years. Now, Mississippi’s attorney general is defending the constitutionality of her state’s law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. Earlier this year Lynn Fitch appointed Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart, who on Wednesday will make the state’s case to the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Everything has changed in the last 50 years,” says Ms. Fitch, 60, a Republican who was elected in 2019, in an interview. “Our laws are much different. The culture is different today than it was 50 years ago. And certainly the workforce and the workplace has changed.” That’s part of the reason the justices should uphold Mississippi’s law, the state argues.
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What about the woman who sacrifices a job she loves to raise a child? That’s a choice too, and not necessarily one made in despair. Roe and Casey “pitted women and children against one another, and that’s not where we want to be,” Ms. Fitch says. “With Roe out of the way, we’ll have the opportunity to really have genuine, healthy conversations about how we care for the dignity of women and their children.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-abortion-promote-equality-for-women-childbearing-law-11638115972?
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3. Biden Leads Party Push to Block Abortion Restrictions, By Catherine Lucey, The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2021, Pg. A4
As the Supreme Court prepares to consider a big test to abortion rights, President Biden is leading Democratic efforts to block new restrictions on the procedure, following a campaign shift toward the views of a liberal Democratic Party.
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Mr. Biden, a practicing Catholic, described his position on abortion as “middle of the road” in the past. But he has sought to stay in step with a Democratic Party that has rejected policies that would limit access to abortion and turned away from candidates with reservations on the issue. That has presented challenges, such as criticism from U.S. Catholic bishops, and risks limiting his appeal to some voters.
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Since taking office, Mr. Biden stripped the Hyde Amendment from his budget proposal. His administration has asked the Supreme Court to block the Texas law, which prohibits abortions after “cardiac activity” can be detected. For most pregnancies, that happens at around two weeks after a woman has missed her period. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments over whether the federal government and abortion providers can challenge it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-abortion-restrictions-supreme-court-mississippi-texas-11638024836?
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4. Vatican cardinal says women’s ordination is ‘wrong path’, By Inés San Martín, Crux November 29, 2021
Though the week-long Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America offered a long string of bold proposals, the proposal of ordaining women either as deacons or as priests was rarely brought up. And the one time it was, a top-Vatican cardinal dismissed it.
“We still need much synodality,” said Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, during a press conference held Friday, as the Nov. 21-28 assembly was wrapping up.
Asked point blank if the lack of vocations to the priesthood could lead to the ordination of women, even if only to the diaconate, the prelate said that from a “doctrinal point of view” there are “no conclusions that open this door.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2021/11/vatican-cardinal-says-womens-ordination-is-wrong-path
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5. To Protect Abortion Rights, Turn to Elections, By The New York Times, November 28, 2021, Pg. SR6, Editorial
Will the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade? As the justices prepare to hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 in the biggest abortion case in decades, that is the understandable question on everyone’s mind. It’s also a misleading one.
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In the end, this is how reproductive freedom must be saved — through a concerted political campaign that harnesses public support with a message of openness and pride, and a focus on women’s equality and bodily autonomy. It needs to encompass not just the right to end a pregnancy but also the right not to get pregnant in the first place by having easy access to contraception. This shift may not happen tomorrow, but it won’t happen at all unless voters start coming out and choosing representatives who support reproductive freedom, and convert that support into policy.
The Supreme Court will rule on Dobbs, but that will not be the end of the story. This story, like most movements for greater equality throughout American history, is not ultimately about the judiciary’s interpretation of the Constitution. It is about the impact of large-scale social movements, and of regular people and their power to change the way we think about — and defend — our most fundamental rights.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/opinion/roe-abortion-dobbs-scotus.html
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6. Pope’s Italian crackdown suggests he’s more irked by sloth than ideology, By John L. Allen Jr., Crux, November 28, 2021, Opinion
Early on Pope Francis may have played down most of the traditional epithets of his office, such as “Primate of Italy,” by instructing the Vatican to print them on a separate page of its annual yearbook. The fact he avoids the title, however, clearly doesn’t mean he dislikes the gig.
On the contrary, few popes in recent memory have been quite as aggressive in seeking to reshape the Italian church in their own image as Francis, who may be Argentinian but whose family roots are in the northern Italian region of Piedmont.
The latest example of this pope taking personal charge in Italy came Friday, when the Vatican announced that Francis has created a special commission to evaluate the country’s implementation of his 2015 motu proprio Mitis Iudex, which sought to reform the annulment system to make things faster, easier and free of charge.
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Most Italian observers concede that the church here hasn’t fully succeeded in translating Mitis Iudex into reality, but it’s not really about ideological backlash. It’s just that the infrastructure of the Italian church is slow, unwieldy, and, like bureaucratic systems everywhere, prefers inertia to action. It’s not like most Italian bishops are opposed to annulment reform on principle — if anything, the fewer headaches they have to face on that front, the happier most of them probably would be.
Pope Francis might be willing to abide a certain degree of principled dissent, but he’s apparently less inclined to put up with ecclesiastical entropy – especially here in Italy, where, by God, he can do something about it.
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2021/11/popes-italian-crackdown-suggests-hes-more-irked-by-sloth-than-ideology
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7. Pope, diplomats point to migration as key theme of Greece-Cyprus trip, By Elise Ann Allen, Crux, November 28, 2021
Just days ahead of Pope Francis’s Dec. 2-6 visit to Greece and Cyprus, both he and the Cypriot ambassador to the Holy See have issued statements highlighting, among other things, the urgency of the migration issue for the island nation and the broader Mediterranean region.
In a video message to Greece and Cyprus published Nov. 27, Pope Francis insisted that “Europe cannot ignore the Mediterranean, the sea which has seen the spread of the Gospel and the development of great civilizations.”
“The mare nostrum, which connects so many lands, invites us to sail together, not to be divided by going our separate ways,” especially with the pandemic still underway and at a time when “the climate crisis is looming large,” he said, adding that the sea, “which embraces many peoples, with its open ports reminds us that the sources of living together lie in mutual acceptance.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2021/11/pope-diplomats-point-to-migration-as-key-theme-of-greece-cyprus-trip
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8. Supreme Court set to take up all-or-nothing abortion fight, By Mark Sherman, Associated Press, November 28, 2021
Both sides are telling the Supreme Court there’s no middle ground in Wednesday’s showdown over abortion. The justices can either reaffirm the constitutional right to an abortion or wipe it away altogether.
Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that declared a nationwide right to abortion, is facing its most serious challenge in 30 years in front of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority that has been remade by three appointees of President Donald Trump.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/11/supreme-court-set-to-take-up-all-or-nothing-abortion-fight
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9. Pope Francis pained at migrant deaths in English Channel, By Associated Press, November 28, 2021, 8:15 AM
Pope Francis on Sunday expressed pain and sorrow at the deaths and suffering of migrants crossing the English Channel, at the border between Poland and Belarus and in the Mediterranean Sea.
The pope asked the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the traditional Sunday blessing to pray “for migrants and their suffering.” Those present included members of an association of migrants with whom he met a day earlier at the Vatican, and who held an enormous banner comprised of flags from countries around the world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-pained-at-migrant-deaths-in-english-channel/2021/11/28/35809a88-504d-11ec-83d2-d9dab0e23b7e_story.html
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10. Abortion arguments delayed until next year, By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press, November 27, 2021, Pg. A2
Appellate arguments over a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law have been pushed into the new year.
Oral arguments in the case had originally been planned for next month, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rescheduled them for the last week in January, according to an order from the court. Earlier this week, attorneys for the state also requested that the case be heard toward the end of that week, due to a scheduling conflict.
Planned Parenthood is suing South Carolina to over the measure, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this year and requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a so-called “fetal heartbeat.” If cardiac activity — which can typically be detected about six weeks into pregnancy — is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/south-carolina-abortion-appellate-hearing-moved-to-january/2021/11/26/84ff6780-4ed9-11ec-a7b8-9ed28bf23929_story.html
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11. Pope Francis and Macron meet at the Vatican amid clergy abuse scandals in France, By Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service, November 26, 2021, 2:23 PM
French President Emmanuel Macron met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, where they discussed the future of Europe and the results of the COP26 environmental summit in Glasgow in November.
Macron and the pope spoke in private at the Vatican before meeting with Francis’ right-hand man at the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who heads the Vatican’s powerful Secretariat of State. Macron also spoke with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who handles the Holy See’s relations with states.
“In the course of the talks, a number of international issues were discussed, including environmental protection in the light of the outcome of the recent COP26 in Glasgow,” read a statement from the Vatican (Nov. 26). “There was also an exchange of views on the prospects for the forthcoming French presidency of the European Union, as well as France’s commitment in Lebanon, the Middle East and Africa.”
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The visit by the French president takes place at a time when the Catholic Church in France is undergoing significant turmoil, largely due to clergy abuse scandals that have marred the church’s credibility. Once called the “firstborn daughter of the Catholic Church” in Europe, France is seeing faithful leave the church in droves.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/pope-francis-and-macron-meet-at-the-vatican-amid-clergy-abuse-scandals-in-france/2021/11/26/6086fb10-4eee-11ec-a7b8-9ed28bf23929_story.html
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12. Paris archbishop offers to resign over ‘ambiguous’ relations, By Associated Press, November 26, 2021, 2:28 PM
The archbishop of Paris has offered to step down after admitting to having had an “ambiguous” relationship with a woman in 2012, the archdiocese said.
Archbishop Michel Aupetit, who has led the Paris church since 2018, sent a letter to Pope Francis offering to resign following a report in Le Point magazine. There was no indication if or when Francis might act on it; he has refused to accept similar offers from other prelates caught up in scandal.
In an article published this week, Le Point said Aupetit had a consensual, intimate relationship with a woman. The report relied on several anonymous sources who said they had seen a 2012 e-mail Aupetit sent by mistake to his secretary.
Aupetit denied being the author of the email and told Le Point that he didn’t have intimate and sexual relations with the woman.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/paris-archbishop-offers-to-resign-over-ambiguous-relations/2021/11/26/dabb4652-4eee-11ec-a7b8-9ed28bf23929_story.html
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13. Pope Francis creates commission to assess reform of marriage nullity process in Italy, By Catholic News Agency, November 26, 2021, 6:30 AM
Pope Francis created a commission on Friday to assess how the Catholic Church in Italy is implementing the reform of the marriage nullity process he introduced in 2015.
The pope established the pontifical commission with an apostolic letter issued motu proprio (“on his own impulse”) on Nov. 26.
He explained that he was taking the step to “directly support the Churches that are in Italy in receiving the reform of the canonical process for the cases of declaration of nullity of marriage, giving new impetus to the application of the motu proprio Mitis Iudex.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249717/pope-francis-creates-commission-to-assess-reform-of-marriage-nullity-process-in-italy
___________________________________________________________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. |
