1. Mexico ends its federal ban on abortion, but a patchwork of state restrictions remains, By Fabiola Sánchez and Megan Janetsky, Associated Press, September 7, 2023, 6:34 AM
A Mexican Supreme Court decision to end the federal ban on abortion extended a regional trend of increasing access to the procedure, but left in place a patchwork of varying state restrictions.
The high court on Wednesday threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion, in a ruling that will require the federal public health service to offer the procedure to anyone who requests it.
That will mean access for millions of Mexicans since the social security service and other federal institutions provide health care to most people who work in the formal economy.
Some 20 Mexican states, however, still criminalize abortion. Those laws were not affected by the Supreme Court ruling, but abortion rights advocates will likely ask state judges to follow its logic.
Abortions are not widely prosecuted as a crime in Mexico, but many doctors refuse to provide them, citing the law.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/07/mexico-abortion-decriminalize-supreme-court/9d94dd5a-4d3a-11ee-bfca-04e0ac43f9e4_story.html
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2. Baltimore Archdiocese considers bankruptcy amid possible sex abuse lawsuits, By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency, September 6, 2023, 2:24 PM
The Archdiocese of Baltimore will consider filing for bankruptcy as it awaits the implementation of a new law that will end the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits for negligence in relation to child sexual abuse.
Effective Oct. 1, the law will allow a victim of child sex abuse to sue private entities for up to $1.5 million if he or she can show the organization failed to properly respond to sexual abuse that occurred under its watch. Previously, the statute of limitations was seven years after the victim’s 18th birthday.
Because the new law will apply retroactively, victims whose statute of limitations had already passed will be able to file lawsuits against private entities. An attorney’s general report from April accused the archdiocese of covering up child sex abuse for decades, and the archbishop believes this law could lead to multiple lawsuits that could have “devastating financial consequences” for the archdiocese.
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255295/baltimore-archdiocese-considers-bankruptcy-amid-possible-sex-abuse-lawsuits
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3. Catholic bishops take issue with Biden administration’s proposed LGBT discrimination rules, By Daniel Payne, Catholic News Agency, September 6, 2023, 12:25 PM
The U.S. bishops this week issued a letter criticizing what they said were shortcomings in proposed federal rules meant to address alleged discrimination against LGBT individuals in programs receiving federal Health and Human Services grants.
HHS had issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) earlier in the summer that the department said was meant to “affirm civil rights and equal opportunity for people nationwide in HHS funded programs and services.”
The new policy would “protect LGBTQI+ people from discrimination in important health and human services programs” by “clarifying and reaffirming the prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain statutes” as they apply to grant recipients.
In a letter released Tuesday, the Office of the General Counsel within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that the NPRM reinterprets certain federal nondiscrimination statutes in a way that could, within the operation of Catholic charities, “create conflicts between the [rule’s] requirements and Catholic teaching.”
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255292/catholic-bishops-take-issue-with-biden-administration-s-proposed-lgbt-discrimination-rules
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4. New Jersey Catholic School Case Shines Light on the ‘Ministerial Exception’, ‘Hard cases make bad law,’ the saying goes. Sometimes, however, they make good law — and this is one of those instances., By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, National Catholic Register, September 1, 2023, Opinion
The school year is underway, and parents who have chosen to send their children to religious schools have received some encouraging news.
A new ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court will help protect private faith-based education from the progressive ideologies that plague many of our public schools. But it arose out of a very delicate situation. A Catholic school fired an unmarried pregnant art teacher for having sex outside marriage. The court upheld its right to do so. We may welcome that decision, because it safeguards an important freedom. But we have to be honest about how harsh it seems to the outside world.
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Ideally, a Catholic school should provide pastoral and practical support for an unmarried pregnant teacher — but its first duty is to its pupils and their parents. How can it adhere to the Church’s beliefs about premarital sex if it is conspicuously relaxed about members of staff who ignore them? And how can it retain its religious identity if secular authorities get to decide what is and isn’t a proper application of Catholic teachings?
We all know the saying that hard cases make bad law. Sometimes, however, they make good law — and this is one of those instances. We cannot allow the state to stick its nose into matters that the law makes clear are the business of the school and the archdiocese. Because once it starts, it won’t stop. At a time when our public schools seem to be drifting into deep progressive waters, Catholic schools need the ministerial exception more than ever.
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is a legal analyst for EWTN News, and director of the Conscience Project.
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/new-jersey-catholic-school-case-shines-light-on-the-ministerial-exception
__________________________________________________________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. |
