U.K. lawmakers have formally proposed an “Amess amendment” to a bill going through Parliament seeking to guarantee that Catholic priests can administer the last rites at crime scenes.

The amendment, known as 292E, to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, was proposed by four members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the U.K. Parliament.

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The idea of an “Amess amendment” emerged days after Sir David Amess, a longtime Conservative Member of Parliament, was stabbed multiple times during a meeting with constituents at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on Oct. 15.

According to reports, police turned away a priest who hoped to give the last rites to the Catholic lawmaker.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249401/sir-david-amess-death-uk-lawmakers-formally-propose-amess-amendment-on-last-rites-to-bill
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2. Oklahoma Supreme Court blocks 3 new anti-abortion laws, By Sean Murphy, Associated Press, October 25, 2021, 7:11 PM

Oklahoma’s Supreme Court on Monday blocked three anti-abortion laws that were scheduled to take effect Nov. 1 that abortion rights supporters say would have devastated abortion access in the state.

In a 5-3 ruling , the court granted a temporary injunction that keeps the laws from taking effect. All three appointees of Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt dissented, and one judge didn’t vote.

One law would have required all doctors who perform abortions in Oklahoma to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, which would have forced about half the abortion providers in Oklahoma to stop providing abortions. The other two would create new restrictions on medication-induced abortions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/oklahoma-supreme-court-blocks-3-new-anti-abortion-laws/2021/10/25/e09fbb44-35e8-11ec-9662-399cfa75efee_story.html
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3. Biden sued over reversal of Trump-era abortion referral ban, By Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press, October 25, 2021, 5:20 PM

Ohio’s top lawyer filed suit against the Biden administration on Monday seeking to restore a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics that President Joe Biden reversed earlier this month.

The action filed by Republican Attorney Dave Yost in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati was joined by 11 other states.

At issue are new federal regulations set by the Department of Health and Human Services that take the Title X federal family planning program back to the way it ran under the Obama administration, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.

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States joining the challenge are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Not all states participate in Title X.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-sued-over-reversal-of-trump-era-abortion-referral-ban/2021/10/25/7bd132ec-35d4-11ec-9662-399cfa75efee_story.html
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4. US bishops warn against ‘extreme’ abortion provisions in budget bills, By Christine Rousselle, Catholic News Agency, October 25, 2021, 3:02 PM

Spending bills introduced last week in the U.S. Senate would force employers and insurers to cover and pay for abortion, and do not include longtime protections for conscience rights, the U.S. bishops’ conference warned on Friday. 

“The bills released by the Senate Appropriations chairman this week represent a radical departure from the will of the American people and the principle of justice for all,” said a statement released Friday, Oct. 22 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas.

Dolan leads the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty committee, while Nauman is the chairman of the conference’s pro-life committee.

“By proposing to eliminate the Hyde and Weldon Amendments, among other longstanding, bipartisan pro-life provisions, the Senate is staking out an extreme position of forcing taxpayers to pray for the taking of innocent unborn human life and forcing health care providers to participate in this injustice,” they said.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249395/us-bishops-warn-against-extreme-abortion-provisions-in-budget-bills
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5. Church’s social teaching needed to combat greed, injustice, pope says, By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service, October 25, 2021

With many people around the world facing exclusion and inequality, the social teaching of the Catholic Church can inspire new economic systems that are more “people-centered,” Pope Francis said.

Christians must not “remain indifferent” to those affected by an “economic system that continues to discard people’s lives in the name of the god of money, fostering greed and destructive attitudes toward the resources of the earth and fueling various forms of injustice,” the pope said Oct. 23.

“Our response to injustice and exploitation must be more than mere condemnation,” he said. “First and foremost, it must be the active promotion of good: condemnation of what is wrong, yet promotion of what is good.”

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2021/10/churchs-social-teaching-needed-to-combat-greed-injustice-pope-says/
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