Month: October 2019

No Picture
News Briefs

What is a conference of bishops? A CNA Explainer

October 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Springfield, Ill., Oct 24, 2019 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- The role of president in a bishops’ conference is not as powerful as one may assume, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois told CNA Wednesday.

“It’s important to understand that the bishops’ conference is not some kind of a regulatory body or a supervisory body,” Paprocki told CNA Oct. 23.

The conference, in fact, “doesn’t have any authority over bishops in their own diocese.”

While it would be easy to draw comparisons between the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops  and the United States Congress, Paprocki said that this was not at all the proper analogy for a bishops’ conference.

It is not normally the role of the USCCB to create or pass legislation, the bishop said.

“The meetings of bishops are not normally legislators–I say normally because there are some exceptions to that, and the exceptions are very narrowly defined in Canon 455,” he explained.

These exceptions include setting certain transactional thresholds or the age of confirmation, as well as voting on a specific issue with the permission of the Holy See.

“An example of (the latter) would be the Essential Norms that the bishops adopted in Dallas in 2002, for the protection of minors that was in conjunction with the Charter for the the Protection of Children and Young People,” he said.

“So the Charter is an example of a voluntary document that the bishops adopted.”

A conference of bishops, Paprocki said, is a “grouping of bishops in a region or in a country that comes together for joint pastoral activities.”

These joint pastoral activities mostly involve “advocacy type efforts,” he said.

“That’s, that’s basically what the conference tries to do–the bishops working together as equals.”

The president of a bishops’ conference has more of an advisory role than anything else, said Paprocki.

While the president would author statements from the conference, as well as keep the general assemblies running in an orderly fashion, he does not have supervisory authority over other bishops in their dioceses, nor does the president alone set the agenda for the general assemblies.

“It’s not really an authoritarian position,” said Paprocki. “That position is not like a supervisor of the other bishops and in that sense of mission.” Bishops are only accountable to the pope, Paprocki said, who is represented in the United States by an apostolic nuncio.

Paprocki is one of 10 bishops who have been listed as candidates for the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential elections at the United States Conference of Cathoilc Bishops. Candidates are nominated by their brother bishops, and Paprocki told CNA he was “quite surprised” to see his name put forward.

The current USCCB president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, will conclude his term at next month’s general assembly in Baltimore. Typically, the vice president of the USCCB is voted in to lead the conference for the next term. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles is the conference’s vice president.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Archdiocese of Indianapolis faces new lawsuit over same-sex marriage school policy

October 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Indianapolis, Ind., Oct 24, 2019 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- An Indiana guidance counselor has filed a lawsuit against an Indianapolis Catholic school which placed her on administrative leave after she contracted a same-sex marriage, and did not renew her contract when it expired.

Shelly Fitzgerald, who worked at Roncalli High School for 15 years, filed suit in federal court on Monday against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the high school.

Fitzgerald civilly married another woman in 2014.

According to the Indianapolis Star, after her civil marriage was brought to the school’s attention, Fitzgerald was asked to resign of her own accord, dissolve the civil marriage, or to maintain discretion about the situation until her contract expired.

When she refused these options, she was placed on administrative leave at the beginning of the last school year, and remained on leave until her employment contract expired.

Fitzgerald claims the decision was discriminatory. She is seeking damages for emotional distress and the loss of wages.

David Page, Fitzgerald’s lawyer, argued in the lawsuit that his client was treated differently than heterosexual employees who have disobeyed other Catholic teachings.

The archdiocese has been embroiled in controversy in recent months over the subject of school employees in same-sex civil marriages.

Employment contracts in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis require teachers, whom it says are ministers of the Gospel, to “convey and be supportive of all teachings of the Catholic Church.”

A Jesuit high school in the archdiocese, Brebeuf Prep, appealed to the Vatican after the archdiocese revoked its Catholic status when it would not terminate an employee in a same-sex civil marriage. That appeal is still pending.

In August, Joshua Payne-Elliot, a teacher dismissed from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, filed suit after he was dismissed for contracting a same-sex civil marriage.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that churches have a constitutional right to determine rules for religious schools, and that religious schools have a constitutional right to hire leaders who support the schools’ religious mission,” Jay Mercer, an attorney for the archdiocese, said in August.

“Families rely on the Archdiocese to uphold the fullness of Catholic social teaching throughout its schools, and the Constitution fully protects the Church’s efforts to do so.”

In September, the federal Department of Justice backed the school’s decision in the Payne-Elliott case.

“This case presents an important question: whether a religious entity’s interpretation and implementation of its own religious teachings can expose it to third-party intentional-tort liability. The First Amendment answers that question in the negative,” a the DOJ statement said.

In June, the archdiocese said of teachers that “it is their duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. To effectively bear witness to Christ, whether they teach religion or not, all ministers in their professional and private lives must convey and be supportive of Catholic Church teaching.”

 

 

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Monks at Valley of the Fallen denounce irregularities around Franco exhumation

October 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Madrid, Spain, Oct 24, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The prior of the Benedictine Abbey at the Valley of the Fallen, whence the body of Francisco Franco was exhumed Thursday, has written that the exhumation fails to respect the inviolability of the abbey as a sacred place.

Fr. Santiago Cantera, prior of the Abbey of the Holy Cross, sent a message to Pope Francis; the abbot of Solesmes Abbey; and Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid noting the violation.

Franco’s body was exhumed from the Basilica of the Holy Cross at the Valley of the Fallen Oct. 24. It was re-interred in Madrid’s El Pardo cemetery.

Franco was Spain’s head of state from 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil War when the Nationalist forces he led defeated the Republican faction, until his death in 1975. During the war, Republicans martyred thousands of clerics, religious, and laity; of these, 11 have been canonized, and 1,915 beatified.

The Valley of the Fallen is a monumental complex near Madrid which includes an abbey and basilica, the construction of which Franco ordered to honor the fallen of both sides during the civil war. The bodies of more than 30,000 victims of the war are buried in the complex.

The prior of the Abbey of the Holy Cross also filed a complaint in a Spanish court over the “non-consensual” access by the Civil Guard to the church.

“We want it to be on record that the actions of the Security Forces and the workers have been and are totally incompatible with the principle of the inviolability of places of worship and the rights of this Benedictine community; which we have made known also to the ecclesiastical hierarchy,” according to a statement released Oct. 23 by the Benedictine community.

Europa Press said that the Benedictines have conveyed this complaint to the Archdiocese of Madrid, the Spanish bishops’ conference, Solesmes Abbey (their mother house), and the Holy See.

Fr. Cantera filed a complaint Oct. 21 with the Guardia de San Lorenzo Court of El Escorial for “preventing access by the monks” to the basilica.

In the statement the Benedictines said that since Oct. 11, after the agreement by the Council of Ministers which decreed the closure of the Valley of the Fallen, “the Civil Guard, without judicial authorization to allow it, accessed and wandered about the premises of the abbey and, what is more serious, accessed and wandered about the basilica.”

According to the religious, the Civil Guard “without any ecclesiastical authorization and occupying it 24 hours a day, violated thus both the right to the inviolability of domiciles and the right to religious freedom.”

The complaint also states that on Oct. 20 the passage of the monks was prevented, since “chains and padlocks were placed on the access door between the abbey and the basilica,” despite the fact that the monks are “the sole owners and custodians of the church.”

However, third parties in fact have been allowed to enter the basilica and abbey “without the least supervision,” and so the Benedictines said that they are not sure if these people have not contravened “the sacred character of the church, not knowing if actions incompatible with worship, piety, or religion have taken place.”

Of the members of the abbey, the government allowed only Fr. Cantera to be present at the exhumation.

The government of Pedro Sanchez, secretary-general of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party, had pledged to exhume Franco’s body.

It is spending some $70,000 on the exhumation and re-burial, the BBC reported.

About 100 supporters of Franco protested the exhumation outside El Pardo cemetery Thursday.

Franco’s grandson, Francisco Franco y Martinez-Bordiu, told Reuters that “I feel a great deal of rage because [the government] has used something as cowardly as digging up a corpse as propaganda, and political publicity to win a handful of votes before an election.”

Spain is due to hold a general election Nov. 10.

Franco’s family tried to block the exhumation in court, but lost its appeal. They also asked that if his body were re-interred, it be moved to Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, but this, too, was rejected.

Fr. Ramon Tejero said Mass at the Franco family mausolum in El Prado cemetery after the re-burial.

In January, Alessandro Gisotti, then-interim director of the Holy See press office, said that the exhumation of Franco is a “matter that concerns his family, the Spanish government, and the local Church.”

Bishop Luis Javier Argüello Garcia, Auxiliary Bishop of Valladolid and secretary general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, said on numerous occasions that the Church “is not opposed” to the exhumation of the remains of  Franco according to the ruling of the Supreme Court, but asked that the country “look forward” and not “reopen wounds.”

Numerous leftist groups have proposed demolishing the 150 meter high cross that presides over the Valley of the Fallen, to make it a “memorial.” Some have also called for the site to be deconsecrated and the abbey closed.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Nearly 1,000 N Ireland medical personnel say they won’t perform abortions

October 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 24, 2019 / 03:41 pm (CNA).- A Northern Ireland doctor opposed to abortion said he collected the signatures of 911 health care professionals in the region who will refuse to perform abortions under a new measure that legalized the procedure.

Dr. Andrew Cupples, a general physician in Northern Ireland, collected the signatures for a letter he sent to the Northern Ireland Secretary last month. The letter, signed by doctors, nurses and midwives, stated their opposition to the new abortion laws and called for strong conscientious objection protections that would ensure that those opposed to abortion may opt out of performing or assisting with the procedure, The Independent reported.

“Hundreds of healthcare professionals in Northern Ireland will refuse to be involved in abortion services. There are even people who are planning to walk away from the healthcare service if they are forced to participate in abortion services,” Cupples told The Independent.

“There are also people in obstetrics and gynecology and midwives who are worried if they do not agree to be trained in abortion they could be forced to do so or reprimanded by their employers or a professional body,” he said.

Earlier this week, Northern Ireland’s devolved legislature failed to block changes to their abortion and gay marriage laws passed by the British Parliament, which has the authority to govern the area in the absence of a functioning local assembly.

A last-ditch effort to recall Northern Ireland’s assembly and block the new laws did not gain necessary cross-party support, and as a result, abortion and same-sex marriage are now legal in Northern Ireland.

Previously, abortion had only been permissible in the region in cases in which the mother’s life was in danger, or if there was serious risk of permanent damage to her physical or mental health if she brought her pregnancy to term.

Abortion has been legal in the rest of the UK up to 24 weeks since 1967. Pressure to legalize abortion in Northern Ireland increased after a 2018 referendum legalized abortion in the Republic of Ireland. The law in the Republic of Ireland permits medical professionals who conscientiously object to abortion to refrain from participation in the procedure; however, doctors who object to abortion must refer women to doctors who will perform them.

Documents from the Republic of Ireland’s health department earlier this year showed that abortion services are limited at nine of the country’s 19 maternity hospitals, in part due to conscientious objectors.

At least 640 general practitioners in Ireland signed a petition last November objecting to the new obligation of referring patients to other doctors for abortions.

The majority of the Reppublic of Ireland’s 2,500 GPs are unwilling to perform abortions. Only between 4-6% of GPs have said they would participate in the procedure.

Cupples told The Independent that he was most worried for midwives and other professionals who have “no protection” under the new abortion law in Northern Ireland.

Guidelines issued by Britain’s Parliament to health care professionals in Northern Ireland regarding the new abortion regulations state that “anyone who has a conscientious objection to abortion may want to raise this with their employer,” the BBC reported.

They also note that in England and Wales, medical professionals may object to participating in an abortion in a “hands on” capacity but they are still required to participate in any related administrative or health care tasks.

These guidelines apply until the end of March, by which time a 12-week public consultation will have concluded and the Northern Ireland government will have issued official protocols for health care professionals regarding abortion in the region.

 

[…]