CNA Staff, Mar 18, 2021 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- An international group of Catholic media professionals and scientists have founded a new organization to help counter misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The initiative includes efforts by Aleteia, I.Media, Our Sunday Visitor, and Verificat.cat, as well as two research centers and a scientific committee. These groups will create a database so Catholic media outlets may factcheck news on the coronavirus vaccine. It will be available in seven languages.
The project is one of 11 chosen proposals by the COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund.
Among the scientists on the committee are José Esparza, former president of the Global Virus Network and senior public health adviser at the World Health Organization (WHO); Rodrigo Guerra, member of the Pontifical Academy of Life; and Jordi Serrano Pons, founder of UniversalDoctor and Epidemics.
The group will publish an internet audience study to better understand how media agencies around the world are reporting on the vaccination process.
In a March 16 press release, Aleteia emphasized the importance of clarifications provided by scientists, bioethicists, and theologians to help counter false vaccine information and fake news. Especially on social media, the news organization said, questions have been raised on the science and ethics surrounding the vaccines.
“The rapid nature of the COVID-19 vaccine development process and the great anxiety caused by the pandemic worldwide have made the topic of vaccination particularly susceptible to misinformation,” says a blog from the Google News Initiative, according to Aleteia.
“Journalists can play a fundamental role supporting an evidence-based discourse by listening to their audiences’ concerns and providing corrective information about misconceptions that circulate online and offline.”
Vaccines against COVID-19 have been supported by Pope Francis, the Holy See, and bishops’ conferences from around the world.
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Exterior of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. / Shutterstock
Boston, Mass., Nov 23, 2022 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
In a 2017 email, a doctor at the transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia said she was not aware of any medical studies at the time that supported the irreversible surgeries the clinic had been performing on minors, public records show.
The statement is contained in internal emails, obtained by a private citizen through a public documents request, between Dr. Nadia Dowshen — co-director of the Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — and Dr. Rachel Levine. At the time Levine, a biological male who identifies as a transgender female, was Pennsylvania’s physician general. Today Levine serves as assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Critics of so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries and treatments for young people with gender dysphoria were outraged by the disclosure, which one leading pediatrician says suggests that these procedures amount to “a giant experiment on children” that lack a clear understanding on the part of health care professionals and their young patients of the risks and long-term consequences involved.
But in a statement to CNA, Levine said there was “nothing unusual” about the email exchange and maintained that the “medical validity” of these procedures has been “affirmed.”
In one of the emails, Levine asked Dowshen and another co-director of the Gender & Sexuality Development Clinic, Dr. Linda Hawkins, about what Levine called “gender confirmation surgery” for “young people under 18 years of age,” which Levine said could include “top surgery for trans young men and top and bottom surgery for trans young women.”
“Top” and “bottom” surgery are the common parlance among transgender supporters for major, irreversible surgical changes to make a person appear to be a different sex. These include the removal of women’s breasts and the removal and reconstruction of male sexual organs.
Rachel Levine, then a nominee for assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2021. Caroline Brehman/AFP via Getty Images
“Is there any literature to support this protocol?” Levine asked in the May 4, 2017, email. “Please let me know if you have any references.”
The same day, Dowshen responded and wrote: “Hi Rachel, I’m not aware of existing literature but it is certainly happening. I think we’ve had more than 10 patients who have had chest surgery under 18 (as young as 15) and 1 bottom surgery (17).”
Dowshen said she was currently working with colleagues to “get some pre-post data for top surgeries for youth under 18” and suggested that a research assistant could do a literature search to make sure they were “not missing anything,” to which Levine agreed.
“A lot of our youth are being denied coverage for top surgery if under 18,” Dowshen said.
In a statement to CNA Wednesday, Levine downplayed the significance of the email exchange.
“As physician general of the state of Pennsylvania, I worked to remain aware of the latest science in a number of health areas. This allowed me to offer policy recommendations to the governor, to offer strong managerial oversight on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania, and to coordinate effectively with my peers,” Levine said.
“My question about the existing literature on surgeries for minors was asked in the same spirit as many of the other questions I asked in that role — that of making sure I was aware of the latest and most relevant data on an issue of public interest,” Levine said.
“There was nothing unusual about that exchange, and in the years since it occurred, the medical validity of gender affirming care has only been reaffirmed and strengthened,” Levine said. “It is important to note the standards of care for patients include psychological and medical evaluations and, if necessary, treatment and support for the young person and their family. Children who have not yet started puberty do not receive medical treatment — at that age, care focuses on counseling and being mindful of the needs of the young person, their family, and their school.”
CNA also contacted Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for comment but did not receive a response.
‘A giant experiment on children’
Dr. Quentin Van Meter, president of the American College of Pediatricians — an organization of pediatricians that advocates for children’s health and well-being — criticized the email exchange. He told CNA that it is wrong for any doctor to be doing experimental surgeries when there are no long-term studies to support them.
Van Meter said the result of the doctors doing experimental sex-change surgeries on minors is that “the lives of what will be tens of thousands of children are ruined.”
He said that there are no long-term studies in existence to support sex-change surgeries, whether that be for minors or adults.
“This is a giant experiment on children,” he said. “Medicine cannot be practiced that way.”
Van Meter also took issue with Levine’s response to CNA.
Van Meter said Levine is wrong about transgender surgeries being “affirmed” by science, saying that “it’s actually been torn to shreds by science.”
“It’s the most embarrassing, non-scientific facade in a very scientific environment,” he said.
The original publicizer of the emails, Twitter user Megan Brock, told CNA she gained access to the emails through a Pennsylvania Right to Know Law public document request.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is the latest hospital to come under fire after media exposés have shown that gender transition surgeries on minors have been taking place at medical institutions across the nation.
In August, Boston Children’s Hospital took heavy criticism when news broke that it was offering gender transition treatments and surgeries for kids. The hospital has since updated its website and says that only 18-year-olds qualify for “phalloplasty or metoidioplasty and for vaginoplasty surgeries.”
The website still says that the hospital will perform “chest surgery” on 15-year-olds.
In October, Vanderbilt University Medical Hospital paused gender transition surgeries on children after an investigation into the hospital was called for by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Vanderbilt’s surgeries on minors — and the lucrative nature of its transgender surgeries in general — were originally exposed by Matt Walsh, an internet host for The Daily Wire.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 26, 2020 / 09:45 am (CNA).- Faith and social issues took center stage on night two of the Republican National Convention, as speakers said the Trump administration had worked to advance the cause of religious freedom, promoting pro-life causes, and criminal justice reform.
Among the speakers was pro-life activist and former Planned Parenthood employee Abby Johnson who condemned her former employer’s racist heritage. She noted that 80% of Planned Parenthood’s abortion facilities are located near minority neighborhoods, and that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a eugenicist.
Trump, she said “has done more for the unborn than any other president” and is “the most pro-life president we’ve ever had.
Johnson graphically described a second-trimester abortion she says she witnessed while working for Planned Parenthood, saying that she saw “an unborn baby fighting back, desperate to move away from the suction … The last thing I saw was a spine twirling around in the mother’s womb before succumbing to the force of the suction.”
Seeing that abortion, she said, caused her to quit her job and leave the abortion industry.
Most Americans, said Johnson, do not understand the “barbarity” of abortion.
“They don’t know about the ‘products of conception’ room in abortion clinics, where infant corpses are pieced back together to ensure nothing remains in the mother’s wombs; or that we joked and called it the ‘pieces of children’ room,” she said.
“See, for me, abortion is real. I know what it sounds like. I know what abortion smells like. Did you know abortion even had a smell?” Johnson herself had two abortions prior to her pro-life conversion.
In her speech, Johnson referred to Biden and Harris as “two radical, anti-life activists.” The Democratic Party platform called, for the first time, for abortion to be codified in federal law, and repeated the 2016 platform’s call for a repeal of the Hyde Amendment forbidding taxpayer dollars for abortions.
The Republican Party has not changed its the 2016 platform, which calls for abortion to be illegal, but did release a list of 50 bullet points outlining the priorities of a second term of the Trump presidency. Those points do not mention abortion policy, though Johnson emphasized that in her view, Trump’s second term will feature continued efforts on restricting legal protection for abortion.
Cissie Graham Lynch, the granddaughter of evangelist Billy Graham, spoke Tuesday night on the importance of the free exercise of religion “in our schools, and in our jobs, and yes, even in the public square.”
“Our founders did not envision a quiet, hidden faith: they fought to ensure that the voices of faith were always welcomed; not silenced, not bullied,” she said. Lynch said that during the Obama/Biden administration, “these freedoms were under attack.”
Lynch cited the examples of the HHS contraceptive mandate, which she said was an attempt to “force religious organizations to pay for abortion-inducing drugs,” and efforts to force adoption agencies to violate their religious beliefs in who they worked with.
“Democrats pressured schools to allow boys to compete in girls sports and use girls locker rooms,” she said, referring to transgender activists. “Those are the facts.”
With the election of Donald Trump, she said, “people of faith suddenly had a fierce advocate in the White House,” noting that he appointed judges who “respect the First Amendment” and withdrew policies that violated conscience rights.
“The Biden-Harris vision leaves no room for people of faith,” Lynch said. “Whether you’re a baker or florist or a football coach, they will force the choice between being obedient to God or to caesar–because the radical left’s God is government power.”
One of the more emotional moments of the night was the story of Jon Ponder, a convicted bank robber. While in prison, Ponder turned his life around through a chaplaincy program. Upon release, Ponder founded a nonprofit organization Hope for Prisoners, and befriended the FBI agent who arrested him.
Hope for Prisoners works to assist prisoners with reentry into society, and provides leadership training, financial advice, professional development, and technology training.
“My hope for America is that all people regardless of race, color, class or background will take advantage of the fact that we live in a nation of second chances,” said Ponder on Tuesday. Trump called his story “a beautiful testament to the power of redemption.”
At the end of the segment, Trump pardoned Ponder for his bank robbery conviction, which is a federal crime. Ponder had previously been granted clemency in Nevada on battery charges.
Also featured on Tuesday night was Nick Sandmann, who, as a student at Covington Catholic High School, was the subject of a media firestorm after an out-of-context clip went viral showing him smiling at a Native American demonstrator in front of the Lincoln Memorial after the March for Life earlier this year. Sandmann spoke on the topics of cancel culture and the need for media accountability and honesty.
The renowned Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous sculpture “Salvator Mundi” (Savior of the World) is on display at Rome’s airport. / Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport
Washington D.C., Apr 20, 2023 / 12:47 pm (CNA).
The next time you are flying through Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport you can see Jesus at Terminal 1.
The renowned Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous sculpture Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) is on display at Rome’s airport.
Created by Bernini in 1679 and crafted entirely out of marble, Salvator Mundi is a Baroque masterpiece and the last sculpture finished by the master carver before he died in 1680.
The bust depicts Jesus with long, curling hair, looking serenely outward and stretching out his hand as if in blessing.
Salvator Mundi was only rediscovered in 2001 and can normally be seen at Rome’s Basilica of San Sebastiano Fuori le Mura.
The airport gained permission from the Italian Interior Ministry to display the piece for a limited time to commemorate Terminal 1’s grand reopening.
According to a statement by Aeroporti di Roma, the company that manages the Rome area airports, the display opened on April 12 and is part of the airport’s effort “to promote local and national art and culture among Italian and foreign passengers.”
According to The Art Newspaper, Bernini’s famous work will remain on display at the airport for approximately four weeks.
Located in Fiumicino and servicing the Rome metropolitan area, the Leonardo da Vinci Airport is the busiest in Italy.
The terminal housing the display can accommodate 6 million passengers annually, according to Areoporti di Roma.
Now, all those travelers can catch a glimpse of Jesus and perhaps say a quick prayer on the way to catch their flight.
Considered by many the greatest sculptor of the Baroque period, Catholics may be most familiar with Bernini’s gorgeous, twisted columns and baldachin (canopy) that surround and hover over the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Readers may be familiar with Bernini’s famous baldacchino in St. Peter’s. Ricardo André Frantz|Wikipedia|CC BY-SA 3.0
Some of Bernini’s other most famous religious works include The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, the Death of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, and the colonnade enclosing St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
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