With gender ideology invading our schools, Dr. Grazie Christie turns to Mary Hasson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center discussing the impact this is having on a child’s ability to discern the truth–especially as doctors now have their hands tied when it comes to actually caring for the child. As Hasson puts it, this is now ‘advocacy dressed up as science.” Father Ben Kiely of Nasarean.org also joins as we delve into Christian persecution around the world in light of the March for Martyrs that took place in Washington, D.C. last week. Father Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily for this Sunday’s Gospel. Catch the show Saturday at 7am ET/5pm ET on EWTN radio!

https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-128-mary-hasson-on-lies-of-gender-ideology-father-ben-kiely-on-the-persecuted-church/
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1. Nation’s most restrictive abortion law back in Texas court, By Paul J. Weber, Associated Press, October 1, 2021, 6:52 PM

A federal judge on Friday will consider whether Texas can leave in place the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., which since September has banned most abortions and sent women racing to get care beyond the borders of the nation’s second-most populous state.

A lawsuit filed by the Biden administration seeks to land the first legal blow against the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which thus far has withstood an early wave of challenges — including the U.S. Supreme Court allowing it to remain in force.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nations-most-restrictive-abortion-law-back-in-texas-court/2021/09/30/ada05c84-226b-11ec-a8d9-0827a2a4b915_story.html
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2. German Catholic bishop suggests ‘Synodal Way’ is using abuse crisis to reshape Church, By Catholic News Agency, September 30, 2021, 3:00 AM

A German Catholic bishop suggested this week that the country’s “Synodal Way” is using the abuse crisis to reshape the Church on Protestant lines.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg questioned why the German Catholic Church’s progress in tackling abuse was seldom acknowledged, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

He said: “The fact that interested parties now continue to pretend that nothing has actually happened so far, that without a valid comparison of institutions and without a historical classification of the cases of abuse, the peculiarities of the Catholic Church are systemically blamed for it, feeds my suspicion that the sexual abuse is being instrumentalized here in an attempt to reshape the Catholic Church along the lines of Protestant church orders, where ‘synod’ means something different than in the Catholic Church, namely a kind of church parliament.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249137/german-catholic-bishop-suggests-synodal-way-is-using-abuse-crisis-to-reshape-church
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3. St Junipero Serra’s example will endure, archbishop says after California governor replaces statue, By Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, September 30, 2021, 9:33 AM

St. Junipero Serra’s heroism did not change when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to ensure that his statue will no longer stand on the state capitol grounds, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has said.

“This new law does not change the facts: Junípero Serra spent his life caring for and defending the indigenous people of California to the point of heroic virtue. Indian and Spaniard alike mourned when he died,” Cordileone said on Twitter Sept 29. “We would do well to imitate his virtues. We ignore history to our peril.”

Gov. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 338 Sept. 24. It replaced a law requiring a statue of St. Junipero Serra at the state capitol with one requiring a statue to honor local indigenous populations. The bill text claims that Serra and his missions were responsible for a host of atrocities against native peoples, which drew strong objections from Catholics who said it was inaccurate and misrepresented Serra.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249142/st-junipero-serras-example-will-endure-archbishop-says-after-california-governor-replaces-statue
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4. Counter Pelosi’s abortion stand with roses and rosaries, Archbishop Cordileone says, By Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, September 30, 2021, 1:06 PM

People should pray especially for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s change of heart on abortion, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has said in an announcement of a prayer campaign for her.

“A conversion of heart of the majority of our Congressional representatives is needed on this issue, beginning with the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” Cordileone said Sept. 29. “I am therefore inviting all Catholics to join in a massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting for Speaker Pelosi: commit to praying one rosary a week and fasting on Fridays for her conversion of heart.”

Cordileone invited Catholics and everyone of good will to sign up for the “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign at the website of the Benedict XVI Institute. A rose will be sent to the Speaker “as a symbol of your prayer and fasting for her,” he said.

The archbishop lamented the House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 3755, which he said would “impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy.” The bill passed Sept. 24 in a largely party-line vote of 218 to 211. It was part of the reaction to a Texas heartbeat-based abortion bill, which the Supreme Court allowed to take effect.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249146/counter-pelosis-abortion-stand-with-roses-and-rosaries-archbishop-cordileone-says
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5. Republican candidates tack toward right on abortion, By Julia Manchester, The Hill, September 30, 2021, 6:01 AM

Republicans across the country are working to appeal to the party’s anti-abortion voter base ahead of next year’s midterms elections by lurching further to the right on the deeply controversial issue than their primary competitors.

In Nevada, former Sen. Dean Heller voiced his support for the near-total ban on abortion in Texas as he announced his campaign for governor. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has leaned heavily into his anti-abortion credentials in his run for Senate

Meanwhile in Ohio, three Republican Senate candidates have very publicly thrown their support behind “fetal heartbeat” legislation.

In New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu (R), a potential Senate candidate, is facing backlash from Democrats for signing a state budget that included a ban on the procedure after 24 weeks of pregnancy and mandatory ultrasounds before abortions take place.

The issue has also come up in other closely watched races, including in Virginia and Arizona.

Despite facing backlash from Democrats on the issue, conservatives say the move to the right is essential for winning a Republican primary.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/574599-republican-candidates-tack-toward-right-on-abortion
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6. Florida death row chaplain given Guardian of Life Award from Pontifical Academy, By Jessica Mundie, Religion News Service, September 30, 2021, 5:54 PM

Dale Recinella, a Catholic lay chaplain on Florida’s death row, was awarded the first-ever Guardian of Life Award from the Pontifical Academy of Life on Tuesday (Sept. 28). Recinella, the first-ever recipient of the new award, accepted the honor at the academy’s general assembly in Rome.

For more than two decades, Recinella had been offering pastoral care and religious education to inmates in solitary confinement at Florida State Prison in Raiford, near Jacksonville, which houses the second-largest death row population in the United States.

He also provided deathwatch ministry to those awaiting scheduled executions. This work included spiritual preparations on the day of execution, accompanying inmates to their final goodbye with loved ones, presence at execution and pastoral care for the family post-execution.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/florida-death-row-chaplain-given-guardian-of-life-award-from-pontifical-academy/2021/09/30/ea655eae-2238-11ec-a8d9-0827a2a4b915_story.html?variant=45bcfc8a951d56c3
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7. Study: Social hostility to religion declines, but government restrictions rise, By Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service, September 30, 2021, 5:54 PM

A global analysis of government restrictions toward religion finds that the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions rose slightly in 2019.

The analysis from the Pew Research Center, which included 198 countries, also found that social hostility toward religion declined in 2019, the last year for which data is available.

Most countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions in 2019 were either in the Asia-Pacific region (25 of the 50 countries in that region) or in the Middle East-North Africa region (19 of 20 countries).

…

Egypt, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Russia stood out for having the most government restrictions and social hostilities toward religion. Japan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Italy and the United States had the least restrictions and hostilities.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/study-social-hostility-to-religion-declines-but-government-restrictions-rise/2021/09/30/2665a6b4-2236-11ec-a8d9-0827a2a4b915_story.html
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8. Alito defends letting Texas abortion law take effect, says Supreme Court critics want to intimidate justices, By Robert Barnes and Mike Berardino, The Washington Post, September 30, 2021, 7:51 PM

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Thursday defended the Supreme Court’s actions in letting a controversial and restrictive Texas abortion law go into effect, and said criticism of the court’s recent decisions in emergency cases was an attempt to intimidate the justices.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/alito-texas-abortion-law-shadow-docket/2021/09/30/e74da5f6-2219-11ec-8200-5e3fd4c49f5e_story.html
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9. Hadley Arkes’s Straw-Man Argument for a ‘Better Originalism’ on Roe, By Ed Whelan, National Review, September 30, 2021, 10:24 AM, Opinion

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, my friend Hadley Arkes argues for what he labels a “better originalism” in place of the “truncated originalism” that “has predominated” among legal conservatives. That dominant originalism, he contends, is “detached from the understanding that the American Founders, the true originalists, had of the moral ground of the Constitution and laws they were shaping.”

There is plenty of room for methodological disputes within originalism, and what originalist could oppose a “better originalism”? But Arkes’s critique of the dominant originalism is unpersuasive, and I can’t discern what his “better” alternative actually entails.

1. Let’s start with the straw-man argument that lies at the core of Arkes’s piece. Arkes would have you think that the dominant originalist case against Roe v. Wade is that “abortion is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.” Repeating the same charge, he alleges that the dissents of Justice White and Justice Rehnquist in Roe “were content to rely on the point that abortion was nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.” This charge is patently false.

The originalist case against Roe rests heavily on (as Mississippi puts it in its brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) “text, structure, history, [and] tradition.” A central part of the case has always been that many states, recognizing the child in the womb as a human being worthy of protection, broadly prohibited abortion at the very time that the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. I am not aware of any originalist who has ever been “content to rely on the point that abortion was nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.”

…

2. I’m unclear on what role Arkes believes the “moral ground of the Constitution” should have in originalist interpretation of the Constitution. The dominant originalist view, as I understand it, is that separation of powers and federalism are part of that “moral ground,” and that the duty of Supreme Court justices is not to indulge their own moral preferences in interpreting the Constitution. Constitutional provisions, of course, might embed moral understandings, and when they do, justices should interpret those provisions consistent with those understandings. If that is all that Arkes means, then we are on the same page.

From my broader understanding of Arkes’s work, I fear, though, that he thinks it proper for justices to impose their own moral readings on the Constitution. There are suggestions to that effect in his op-ed. He, for example, faults Justice Scalia for “steer[ing] around the questions of moral substance at the heart” of Obergefell v. Hodges. Does Arkes believe that the case against judicial invention of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage depends in any way on making a moral argument against same-sex relationships?

For decades now, the Left has argued (often overtly, sometimes covertly) that it is legitimate for justices to impose their own moral readings of the Constitution. Indeed, the case for Roe rests heavily on that proposition. I trust that Arkes would argue that the Left’s moral readings are in many instances unsound. But I don’t see how it is right in principle or—given the massive left-wing bias of the elites from which judges are drawn—beneficial in practice to legitimate the broader practice.

https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/hadley-arkess-straw-man-argument-for-a-better-originalism/
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