Satanic, vulgar markings deface Holy Family statutes, suspect shown on camera

Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Ramping up to the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae, a Catholic professor analyzed the encyclical’s guidance on responsible parenthood- discussing when a couple might be open to more children, and when they might choose to delay openness to new life.

Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical explained that “with regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.”

The encyclical said that couples may never licitly use artificial contraception, though couples may use their awareness of a woman’s natural fertility cycle to determine whether to engage in potentially procreative acts; this is ordinarily referred to as “natural family planning,” or NFP.

But what is a “serious reason?” How should couples discern when to be open to children, and when it might be prudent to wait?

Dr. Kevin Miller, a professor of Franciscan University of Steubenville and a bioethics consultant for the online NFP program of Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for Natural Family Planning, discussed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical with CNA.

Miller said that he has very rarely witnessed examples of practicing Catholics- those using natural family planning methods- abstaining selfishly from procreation. More often, he said, he has seen couples struggle with scrupulosity about openness to new life.

“I sometimes run into this idea that there is this crisis in the Church today of couples using NFP for bad reasons, for selfish reasons, or for inadequate reasons to avoid procreation. Honestly, I’m not seeing that.”

“When I’m dealing with people who are using NFP, I actually witness more cases in which there is a significant underestimation of the seriousness of a situation than I do situations in which there is a problem of overestimating the seriousness of the situation.”

“Serious reasons” for using NFP to avoid conception, Miller said, are not limited to life-and-death situations.

The professor said that years before Humanae vitae’s publication, Pope Pius XII issued two addresses: one to Italian midwives and one to an Italian family association. He said the statements, both released in 1951, further clarify the Church’s use of the word “serious” in this context.

“Humanae vitae uses that language- ‘serious reasons.’ I think it ought to be interpreted in continuity with what Pope Pius XII had said 17 years earlier.”

Pius “referred to ‘serious reasons that not rarely occur,’” said Miller.

Reasons can be “serious in the sense of not just a trivial reason…[but Pope Pius XII] indicates that that can happen commonly,” he said.

Miller also pointed to the language used by John Paul II regarding family planning. He said the late pope’s word choice leaned towards “unselfish reasons.”

“In other words, you get the idea that if a reason is an unselfish one, if it doesn’t have to do with hedonistic wishes or something like that, then it’s probably a serious reason.”

In his encyclical, Pope Paul VI gave four broad categories that qualify as serious reasons to avoid potentially procreative acts – medical, psychological, economic, and social reasons.

Miller said if the medical or psychological risks of pregnancy are more than trivial, they qualify as serious reasons. This could mean a physical or mental strain on the mother, he said, but also health issues for other members of the family.  

Using NFP to attempt avoiding or delaying pregnancy is acceptable “if having another child, at least for a time, is going to impose significant health risks on typically the mother, but possibly on some other family member,” he said.

“Maybe there is already a child in the family who has health problems who would be harder to afford to care for that child if you have another child,” he added.

Miller also pointed to the economic factors that could qualify as serious reasons to delay pregnancy through natural family planning, among them the likelihood that additional children would restrict a family’s basic necessities, including food, shelter, clothing, and education.

“One way I like to look at it would be to say if having another child would put the family in the sort of economic situation that if it were the result of, let’s say, a low wage would be called an unjust situation by the Church. I would say that counts as a serious economic reason for using natural family planning.”

He said the last category, social reasons, is not as clearly defined by the Church, but he said it might include those situations in which a family could better serve the common good by having a “somewhat of a smaller family.”

“Some families, in response to the teachings of the Church in places like Familaris consortio, wish to serve society in some special way, maybe like reach out to the needy in society,” said Miller.

These reasons, he said, certainly do not require couples to refrain from procreation, he said, noting there is no flowchart or algorithm for decision-making.

Rather, he said the decision should be made with honesty and prayer, using moral reasoning over moral rationalizing.

“First of all a couple has to make sure they are being honest with themselves, make sure they are reasoning honestly about their situation and not rationalizing,” he said. “Secondly, I would also say…do your moral reasoning in light of your relationship with God. It should be a prayerful as well as an intellectually honest discernment.”

Miller cautioned that couples ought “not to be scrupulous in these matters” if prayer and honesty accompany their decision. He said that unlike artificial contraception, NFP calls couples naturally to be sacrificial.

“I would also even say that, if a couple used natural family planning, the self-mastery and the discipline, that the Church has said comes with use of natural family planning, the more it is likely that as time goes by they will develop even more the virtues of generosity and selflessness.”

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Washington D.C., Apr 17, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- Catholic Relief Services was among 18 organizations that have welcomed the introduction of a Senate Resolution calling on the Trump administration to disburse humanitarian aid already provided by Congress for residents of the West Bank and Gaza.

“U.S. assistance to the region has been withheld for over 15 months. The administration froze all bilateral foreign assistance benefiting Palestinians, pending an administrative review of these programs,” CRS said April 17.

It noted that the review is ongoing, with “no clear criteria or timeline.”

“Meanwhile, more than half the people in Gaza now live in poverty, and hopelessness and instability increase every day.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced Senate Resolution 171 April 16. The Senate would resolve that the executive branch should expend, within fiscal year 2019, the $257.5m that Congress appropriated in 2018 for bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza.

The funds would go to economic support – focused on food, essential health services, and other humanitarian goods and services; narcotics control and law enforcement; and non-proliferation, anti-terrorism, and demining programs.

The resolution notes that the State Department also failed to expend the $302.8m appropriated by Congress in 2017 for assistance to Palestine.

CRS said the resolution addresses the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, passed in 2018, which it said “has made it more difficult to provide U.S. funding to alleviate suffering in the region.

“While Congress never intended the law to affect humanitarian assistance delivered by non-government organizations, interpretations of the ATCA has led to the end of all U.S. government-funded humanitarian work in the West Bank and Gaza, including programs that help people find work, feed their families and access health care,” the organization stated.

The text of the resolution said that the Palestinian Authority’s interpretation of ATCA led it “to reject all forms of United States assistance, meaning that funding for organizations implementing humanitarian aid programs that provide critical services … cannot be carried out.”

The resolution calls for legislation clarifying that programs and activities funded though the Economic Support Fund and consistent with the Taylor Force Act “may not be used as a basis to assert jurisdiction over the Palestinian Authority” under ATCA.

ATCA allows American victims of terrorist attacks to sue entities that receive foreign aid from the the US; American courts would have jurisdiction to seize the assets of these entities. The Palestinian Authority chose to forgo US assistance rather than open itself to such suits.

According to the Washington Post, ATCA’s passage was promoted by Shurat HaDin, an Israeli oganization that files legal actions on behalf of terror victims and trains attorneys “to fight for the rights of the worldwide jewish community and Israel,” according to its website.

CRS said that ATCA “has forced the closing of an emergency food assistance program” it ran in Palestine, “which had already been scaled back due to the ongoing administrative review.”

“We hope a solution is reached swiftly and funding is restored—the vulnerable people we serve can’t wait any longer.”

CRS was one of 18 non-governmental organizations that signed a statement of support for S. Res. 171. It said that “the humanitarian situation facing Palestinians is dire, especially in Gaza,” citing a poverty rate of more than 50% and that most Gazans receive food assistance. It aded that 22% of the population of the West Bank lack clean water, and 14% is food insecure.

The groups said the expenditure of the funds appropriated for assistance to the West Bank and Gaza “will strengthen the humanitarian response in the region and at the same time promote security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians and foster an atmosphere more conducive to a long-term resolution of the conflict.”

Some 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, a densely populated Palestinian strip of land surrounded by Israel and currently under Israeli blockade. The impoverished area often experiences power cuts, and it is difficult for goods to get into or out of Gaza due to its restricted access.

S. Res. 171 is co-conspored by Senators Chris Coons, Catherine Cortez Masto, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, and Chris Van Hollen.

[…]

Relics from Christ’s passion, Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

An exhibit that includes more than 100 relics of Jesus Christ, the Holy Family, and numerous saints will be exhibited at a parish in northern New Jersey on Saturday, Feb. 24, from noon to 7 p.m.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Oratory in Montclair, New Jersey, will host the exhibit at its Capozzelli Hall on 94 Pine Street. The parish is located in the Diocese of Newark, about 20 miles west of New York City.

“I think it’s going to be an experience for people — especially for an exhibit this large,” Joe Santoro, the regional delegate to the United States for the International Crusade for Holy Relics (ICHR), told CNA.

Santoro is supplying the relics for the exhibit, which he obtained personally through his work to preserve these holy objects. He said his preservation of the relics is “saving them from places where they’re not going to be honored in the appropriate way.”

The exhibit includes a handful of relics from the passion of Jesus Christ: a small splinter of the cross, a piece of the crown of thorns, a piece of Christ’s tomb, and a piece of the column on which Christ was whipped before his crucifixion. It also includes relics from the Nativity, such as a piece of the Blessed Mother’s veil, a piece of Christ’s crib, and parts of the bones of the three Wise Men.

Other relics include a piece of skin and blood from St. Padre Pio’s stigmata, a piece of St. John Paul II’s hair, and the scarf of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (the first American saint). The exhibit will also include relics from the evangelists, the apostles, and other saints and martyrs.

The relics will be displayed in three sections: one for relics related to the Passion, one for the Nativity, and one for all of the other relics.

“It is a privilege and a joy to host a relics exhibit of this magnitude,” Father Giandomenico Flora, the rector at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Oratory, told CNA. 

“Some of them date back to biblical times and others are relics of saints of our time,” Flora said. “To have such an exhibition of relics is a blessing for the church [and for] people who will attend the event because it gives the opportunity to pray and to ask for particular graces.” 

Santoro said the relics can help the faithful become closer to God and help them meditate on the Passion of Christ near the beginning of Lent. “People are drawn to them,” he said.

“A relic doesn’t contain any magical power or anything like that,” Santoro added. “The people have to bring their faith and God performs these miracles through these great men and women.” 

The Catholic Church has three classifications for relics. A first-class relic is any part of a saint’s body, such as hair, blood, or bones, or objects directly associated with Christ, such as a piece of the cross, a piece of the tomb, or a piece of his crib. A second-class relic is any item that was used by a saint during his or her life. A third-class relic is an item that touches a first-class relic.

Although this exhibition is a one-off event, Santoro told CNA that he hopes there can be a tour in the near future. He said this weekend is “the kickoff to see how it goes.”

[…]