Senate confirms Catholic law professor as Asst. Secretary of State

Des Moines, Iowa, Jun 22, 2018 / 10:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After reviewing $844,000 worth of grants that were given by Polk County, Iowa to local Catholic schools a few years back, the Diocese of Des Moines said that it believes the grants complied with state law.

“The Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines has concluded that there is nothing improper associated with the technology grant,” the diocese said in a June 21 statement.

It added that after reviewing the relevant facts and law involving the Polk County grant, “We agree completely with Polk County that the Community Development Grant was entirely legal and proper.”

Iowa state law says that government officials “shall not appropriate, give, or loan public funds to, or in favor of, an institution, school, association or object which is under ecclesiastical or sectarian management or control.”

In 2011, after the Polk County Board of Supervisors learned that it could not give grant money directly to church-affiliated schools, Catholic school supporters formed a separate corporation through which to route the grant money.

Called Education for the 21st Century, the corporation is now defunct. During its two years in operation, 100 percent of its reported revenue came from Polk County grants, according to the Des Moines Register.

The grant money was taken from gambling revenue accrued by the Prairie Meadows Casino and Hotel.

The Polk County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 in 2012 to give $400,000 to the corporation. The year after, the board approved $444,000 to the corporation.

With the money, new technology equipment was bought for St. Anthony, St. Joseph, St. Augustin, St. Pius X, St. Theresa, Christ the King, Holy Trinity, Holy Family, and Sacred Heart schools. The money was used to purchase iPads, cameras, computers, projectors, and whiteboards.

“If Iowa taxpayer money was, in fact, intentionally funneled to religious schools, that is unacceptable and a misuse of the taxpayers’ public dollars,” said Mark Stringer, executive director of ACLU Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register.

However, county supervisors have defended financial assistance to Catholic schools. They say that going forward, such assistance can be given directly to the schools, thanks to a 2017 Supreme Court ruling which held that states cannot discriminate against religious schools by making them ineligible for non-religious amenity funding programs.

The Diocese of Des Moines stressed that the Catholic Church “did not manage or control the foundation that received the grant,” and that grant money was not used for religious purposes, but “for purchasing learning technology that was provided to Christian and parochial schools.”

The diocese noted that Catholic schools already receive state funding for transportation and textbooks, “in recognition of the fact that families choosing a religious education are taxpayers.”

“Providing this form of support that does not directly advance religion is entirely consistent with the law,” the diocese said. “In fact, as the US Supreme Court has recognized, a law or policy that expressly discriminates against an otherwise eligible recipient and disqualifies them from a public benefit because of their religious character, is a clear violation of the United States Constitution.”

The former legal advisor for Polk County’s School Board, Michael O’Meara, told the Des Moines Register that he had told the board that they could only support Catholic schools if they did so via an entity that was not under ecclesiastical control.

State Auditor Mary Mosiman said she will not review the case. Her chief of staff and legal counsel noted that the county attorney appeared to have been consulted and approved the grants.
 
 
 

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CNA Staff, Aug 27, 2020 / 05:30 pm (CNA).-  

The U.S. bishops’ conference on Thursday criticized the federal government for its continued use of the death penalty, which the Justice Department resumed this summer after a 17-year moratorium … […]

Mitchell Rozanski, then-Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts and current Archbishop of St. Louis, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Nov. 7, 2019. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington D.C., Oct 7, 2021 / 11:10 am (CNA).

The four bishops of Missouri released a joint statement on Wednesday evening condemning the state’s execution of Ernest Lee Johnson, on whose behalf the Holy See pleaded for clemency.

Johnson, 61, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court denied his emergency appeal for a stay of execution. He was convicted of killing three convenience store employees with a claw hammer in 1994 while attempting to rob the store for drug money..

“As the Catholic bishops of Missouri, we express our disappointment with the decision to allow the execution of Ernest Lee Johnson to move forward yesterday,” said the statement, which was signed by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis, Bishop James Johnson of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, and Bishop Edward Rice of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. 

The bishops said that while Johnson’s crimes were “heinous and deserve to be punished,” the “pro-life state” of Missouri should cease the use of capital punishment. 

The bishops expressed their “sincerest condolences” to the families of Johnson’s victims. 

“The lives of Mary Bratcher, Mabel Scruggs and Fred Jones deserve honor and remembrance,” they said. “We pray for the comfort of their loved ones as they are forced to relive the trauma and pain of these crimes through this execution.” 

The death penalty, said the bishops, “does not make Missouri a safer or more civil state.” 

“As we communicated in our clemency request last month, the death penalty degrades us as a society and teaches our children that violence is the proper response to violence,” they said. “When someone is executed, the opportunity for them to undergo a conversion and repent prior to their final judgement may be lost. That important time for grace to work in a person’s heart is taken away.” 

Alternative punishments, such as life in prison without the possibility of parole, would serve as a suitable way to “address these crimes without resorting to the death penalty,” they said. 

“We ask Catholics and people of good will to join us in seeking alternatives to the death penalty for Missouri’s most violent criminals,” the bishops said. “Even those who commit the most offensive acts do not lose their human dignity before God.”

Johnson’s execution was controversial due to questions surrounding his intelligence. His lawyer, Jeremy Weis, claimed that Johnson was intellectually disabled and had an IQ below 70. 

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Johnson had not proven that he was intellectually disabled, noting that he had extensively planned the crimes and taken steps to destroy incriminating evidence. 

Johnson was initially scheduled to be executed in 2001, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute those with intellectual disabilities. He was re-sentenced to death in 2003 before that sentence was tossed out by the state Supreme Court. He was re-sentenced to death again in 2006.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, on Monday issued a message to Missouri Gov. Michael Parson asking for “some appropriate form of clemency” for Johnson.

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