President Joe Biden signs an executive order at the White House in Washington July 8, 2022. Pictured with Biden are Vice President Kamala Harris, left, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and . Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)
Washington D.C., Jul 8, 2022 / 08:53 am (CNA).
President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Friday aimed at protecting abortion access in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion in 1973.
“President Biden has made clear that the only way to secure a woman’s right to choose is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe as federal law,” a July 8 White House fact sheet reads. “Until then, he has committed to doing everything in his power to defend reproductive rights and protect access to safe and legal abortion.”
To accomplish this, he will sign an “Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services.”
The order will focus on four general areas: access to “reproductive health care services,” including abortion and contraception; patients’ privacy and access to information; the security of patients, providers, and clinics; and the coordination of federal efforts to protect “reproductive rights and access to health care.”
National pro-life leaders expressed concern about the order, particularly its impact on abortion drugs.
“It is tragic that this administration is using its power to push for more and more painful abortions which harm women and take innocent lives,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said in a statement. “Of particular concern is the administration’s effort to push chemical abortion which carries significant health risks to women, even more than surgical abortion.”
Likewise, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenefelser, stressed that “President Biden has once again caved to the extreme abortion lobby, determined to put the full weight of the federal government behind promoting abortion.”
“Democrats will stop at nothing to promote their agenda of abortion on demand, up until the moment of birth, paid for by the taxpayers – including dangerous mail-order abortion drugs — even if it means gutting the long-standing filibuster, increasing the size of the Supreme Court, or putting abortionists in tents in national parks,” she said in a statement.
Under safeguarding “access to reproductive health,” Biden directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to protect “medication” abortion and contraception, ensure emergency medical care particularly for pregnant woman, launch public education efforts, and convene public lawyers.
“Such representation could include protecting the right to travel out of state to seek medical care,” the fact sheet reads.
Under protecting patient privacy, the order promises to protection consumers against privacy violations and deceptive practices as well as protect sensitive health information.
The administration also will protect patients seeking abortion as well as providers and clinics providing abortion, including “mobile clinics, which have been deployed to borders to offer care for out-of-state patients,” according to the fact sheet.
Under coordinating federal efforts, the order will establish an “Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Health Care Access,” to organize federal interagency policymaking and program development.
Biden, a Catholic, has repeatedly supported abortion in contrast with the Catholic Church’s teaching that human life must be respected and protected from the moment of conception.
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Denver, Colo., Jan 19, 2023 / 11:37 am (CNA).
Childbirth in America should be free, say two prominent pro-life leaders on both sides of the political divide. Federal funding of all baby deliveries and related costs would help Am… […]
An artist’s rendering of the affordable apartment complex soon to be built by Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance in Los Angeles. / Courtesy of Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance
St. Louis, Mo., Aug 26, 2024 / 06:30 am (CNA).
Los Angeles is one of the most expensive cities in the United States, with an average home price almost touching a million dollars in 2024 — a landscape that crowds out not only the poor, but also young families with children. The high cost of housing is one of the primary reasons why tens of thousands of people live on the streets of LA, and most of those who are housed are “rent burdened,” which means they spend more than 30% of their income just keeping a roof over their heads.
In the face of such challenges, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently announced it will provide land for a new housing development dedicated to serving community college students and young people exiting the foster care system.
Amy Anderson, executive director of Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing alliance and a former chief of housing for the City of Los Angeles, told EWTN News that a group of Catholic lay leaders from the business and philanthropic community reached out to the archdiocese with a vision for creating an independent, nonprofit affordable housing development organization.
“Our vision is to really collaborate with the archdiocese and [use] the resources potentially available from the archdiocese to create homes that are affordable to a wide range of populations and incomes,” Anderson told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol.
She said they hope to break ground on the project, known as the Willowbrook development, “about a year from now.”
“The archdiocese is a fantastic partner. They are providing the land for our first development, which is already in process, and we’re working really closely with them to identify additional opportunities.”
The proposed building, which will be located steps from Los Angeles Community College, will feature 74 affordable housing units, as well as “on-site supportive services” for young people transitioning out of foster care — a population that often ends up experiencing homelessness.
The land, located at 4665 Willow Brook Ave just a few miles from the Hollywood Sign, currently hosts a Catholic Charities building, which will move its operations to another site to make way for the apartments.
“Through Catholic Charities and our ministries on Skid Row [an LA street where many unhoused people live] and elsewhere, we have been working for many years to provide shelter and services for our homeless brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement to LAist.
“With this new initiative we see exciting possibilities to make more affordable housing available, especially for families and young people.”
Making land work for mission
The Catholic Church is often cited as the largest non-governmental owner of land in the entire world, with an estimated 177 million acres owned by Catholic entities.
Maddy Johnson, program manager for the Church Properties Initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate (FIRE), noted that the Church as a large landowner is not a new phenomenon, but there is a need today to adapt to modern challenges like regulations, zoning, and the importance of caring for the natural environment.
Many Catholic dioceses and religious orders have properties in their possession that aren’t fulfilling their original purpose, including disused natural land and parking lots, as well as shuttered convents and schools. Sometimes, Johnson said, a diocese or religious order doesn’t even realize the full extent of what they own.
“How can the Church make good strategic decisions, strategic and mission-aligned decisions, if it doesn’t know what properties it’s responsible for?” she said.
The Church of St. Agatha and St. James in Philadelphia, with The Chestnut in the foreground, a housing unit developed on property ground-leased from the church. Courtesy of Maddy Johnson/Church Properties Initiative
Since real estate management is not the Church’s core competency, FIRE aims to “provide a space for peer learning” to educate and equip Church leaders to make better use of their properties in service of the Church’s mission.
To this end, they offer an undergraduate minor at Notre Dame that aims to teach students how to help the Church make strategic real estate decisions that align with the Church’s mission. The Institute also organizes a quarterly networking call with diocesan real estate directors, as well as an annual conference to allow Catholic leaders to convene, share best practices, and learn from each other.
Fr. Patrick Reidy, C.S.C., a professor at Notre Dame Law School and faculty co-director of the Church Properties Initiative, conducts a workshop for diocesan leaders on Notre Dame’s campus in summer 2023. Courtesy of David J. Murphy/Church Properties Initiative
In many cases, Catholic entities that have worked with FIRE have been able to repurpose properties in a way that not only provides income for the church, but also fills a need in the community.
Johnson said the Church is called to respond to the modern problems society faces — one of which is a lack of housing options, especially for the poor.
“Throughout its history, there have been so many different iterations of how the Church expresses its mission…through education, healthcare — those are the ones that we’ve gotten really used to,” Johnson said.
“In our day and age, could it be the need for affordable housing?…that’s a charitable human need in the area that’s not being met.”
Unlocking potential in California
Queen of Angels Housing’s first development, which has been in the works for several years, is being made possible now by a newly-passed state law in California that aims to make it easier for churches to repurpose their land into housing.
California’s SB 4, the Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act, was signed into law in October 2023. It streamlines some of the trickiest parts of the process of turning church-owned land into housing — the parts most people don’t really think about. These can include permitting and zoning restrictions, which restrict the types of buildings that can be built in a given area and can be difficult and time-consuming to overcome. SB 4 even includes a provision allowing for denser housing on church-owned property than the zoning ordinances would normally allow.
Yes in God’s Backyard
The law coming to fruition in California is part of a larger movement informally dubbed “Yes in God’s Backyard,” or YIGBY — a riff on the term “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY), a phenomenon whereby neighbors take issue with and oppose new developments.
Several Catholic real estate professionals with ties to California expressed excitement about the possibilities that SB 4 has created in the Golden State.
Steve Cameron, a Catholic real estate developer in Orange County, told CNA that he is currently working with the Diocese of Orange, which abuts the LA archdiocese, to inventory properties that could be repurposed for residential use.
He said their focus is on building apartment buildings and townhomes, primarily for rental rather than for sale, in an attempt to address the severe housing shortage and high costs in Southern California.
Unlike some dioceses, the Orange diocese has an electronic GIS (geographic information system) database showing all the properties it owns. Prepared by a civil engineering firm, the database includes details such as parcel numbers, acreage, title information, and demographic reports, which facilitate the planning and development process.
“Strategically, what we’re doing is we’re inventorying all of the property that the diocese and the parishes own, and trying to understand where there might be underutilized property that would make sense to develop some residential use,” Cameron said.
Cameron said he can’t yet share details about the housing projects they’re working on, but said they are looking to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Queen of Angels housing project as a model for how to take advantage of the new incentives created by SB 4.
“I think it’s great, and it’s exciting that they’re taking the lead and that they are able to find an opportunistic way to repurpose an underutilized property to meet the housing shortage in California,” he said.
“[We] look at them as a role model for what we’re trying to accomplish here in the Diocese of Orange.”
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago with One Chicago Square in the background, a residential tower constructed on the former cathedral parking lot, which was sold in 2019. Courtesy of Maddy Johnson/Church Properties Initiative
John Meyer, a former president of the California-based Napa Institute who now works in real estate with J2 Development, emphasized the importance of viewing the Church’s vast real estate holdings as an asset rather than a liability.
Meyer said he is currently working with two Catholic entities on the East Coast on ground lease projects, one of which will fund the construction of a new Catholic Student Center at a university. He told CNA he often advises Catholic entities to lease the land they own rather than selling it, allowing the church to maintain ownership of the property while generating income.
Naturally, he noted, any real estate project the Church undertakes ought to align with the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel, and not merely be a means of making money.
“Any time we look at the Church’s real estate decisions, it’s got to be intertwined with mission and values,” he said.
“We’re not just developing for the sake of developing. What we want to do is we want to create value for the Church, and we also want to create value for the community. So working closely with the municipality to make sure that needs are met, and to be a good neighbor, is important.”
He said Church leaders should strongly consider taking advantage of incentives in various states such as California for projects like affordable housing, which align with the Church’s mission and provide both social and financial benefits.
“Priests and bishops aren’t ordained to do these things, and sometimes they have people in their diocese that have these abilities, and sometimes they don’t,” Meyer said.
“This [new law] in California has created an incentive that we can take advantage of, so we need to take advantage of that incentive…it’s allowing us to unlock potential value in land while at the same time serving a social good that’s part of the mission of the Church.”
Woman with transgender symbol on her hand. / Juanje Garrido/shutterstock
CNA Staff, Dec 21, 2023 / 14:52 pm (CNA).
Saint Mary’s College — a Catholic women’s school in Notre Dame, Indiana — is reversing its controversial transgender admissions p… […]
18 Comments
The party of death will not rest until every sweet, innocent little child is disposed of before he or she (yes, you heard me; *he* or *she*) has the chance to draw a breath.
Analogically we may compare Heinrich Himmler, former Catholic, chicken farmer who espoused the Gottgläubig movement [indeterminate belief in god] and driving force of the Holocaust, the murder of undesirables, thought a threat to German purity and burden to the economy, to Joseph ‘Joe’ Biden former Catholic, car salesman who espouses nominal Catholicism and the driving force of America’s Abortion industry for the murder undesirables, predominantly pre natal infants, but including post partum survivors who pose a threat to the economy [as argued by Party Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin] and an inconvenience to mothers, now in Party terminology called birthers.
Analogy is never a perfect comparison, but there are similarities. Would the reader not agree?
In terms of essence, yes, Fr. Peter, but not in terms of volume.
Himmler, the chicken farmer, and his quotidian murderers were responsible for the deaths of a mere 50 or 60 million civilians and combatants.
That’s approximately as many deaths as are recorded each *year* around the world now.
So Himmler, as thoroughly despicable as he was, wouldn’t be worthy to loose the sandal strap of chickens*** Biden or Pelosi — or Obama or Schumer or any of the rest of the murder-glutted Democratic ilk — when it comes to slaughtering innocent people.
And, needless to say, there’s enough blood guilt to spill over onto all the Catholics who have voted for the great Democratic holocaust, the most horrific scourge to beset humanity in all of our sordid history.
Bidencalls himself Catholic?He is committing Mortal sin by going to Communion while by agreeing on abortion!He dosn’t seem to care one iota about this and keeps going to Holy Mass!He is in mortal sin and I guess, agrees with it.He needs prayers.
It won’t stop with the unborn; imagine three or four orderlies who have been given their instructions regarding your future; you struggle in your aged and/or diseased ridden state but you cannot overpower against them as they hold down your limbs and insert the pill under your tongue.
I pray for this man since he is closing in on the eventual day when his natural life here on earth will be over. I pray that he will meet a most merciful God but I know that this same God is all Just as well. I suspect that God will ask him, “Where was your mercy toward those lives I had created?”.
What more does Biden have to do before Rome says enough!. There is no point in the pope condemning abortion in an obscure speech but then publicly support Biden and Pelosi. Actions speek louder than words.
Why is it that, when the Biden White House gives us a “photo op” of his signing an executive order to kill the unborn, there never are any children in the picture to witness this historic event? Just asking.
The almost complete lack of any meaningful response, even rhetorical, from the hierarchy of the Church to this all-out war on Christian morality, led partly by self-professed Catholics, does not merely indict, but convicts those who have completely abdicated their responsibility. The judgement of history will be justifiably severe. It will pale in comparison to judgement of God. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to remind the incredibly complacent bureaucrats who hold positions of authority in the Church that they will soon have to give an account for what they did and did not do during their lives. Perhaps, some are for all practical purposes out of reach, but others could be jolted out of their slumber.
Good points, and this absence of appropriate leadership and response exposes the deep rot of corruption in the hierarchy. I honestly don’t know how the church will move forward in the faith with leaders who have no spiritual insight into themselves or the great issues of the day. Is there hope for renewal and restoration or will we need to abandon ship and salvage what we can?
All that you say is true. Reflect for a moment on what consequences that entails. The “lack of any meaningful response” from the “hierarchy of the Church” over the past 50 years renders them guilty of formal cooperation in the horrendous mortal sin and crime of the murder of 60 million innocent babies in the United States alone by their silence and refusal to act. Their sin and crime invokes their latae sententiae excommunication from the Church, including loss of their episcopal offices. On what basis, therefore, can they be obeyed since they are no longer members of the Church?
Friday July 8 – “Biden to sign abortion executive order in response to Dobbs.”
And on Sunday, July 10, if he’s in D.C., he will receive Holy Communion with the blessing of Cardinal Gregory (and the Pope) – WHEREVER he is he will go to Communion.
Meanwhile – efforts to abolish the Latin Mass are ongoing from Rome with the blessing of the Pope, the Pope grants a public audience to one of the must virulent American ‘catholic’ supporters of abortion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Pope has a very public sit-down with fellow Jesuit Fr. James Martin, patron saint of the lgbtq folks,
yada yada yada.
And at some point when we regular Catholics – including us ‘restorationists’ go to Sunday Mass, there will be a 2nd collection for ‘Peter’s Pence’, aka the Pope.
Speaking for JUST MYSELF – Forget it.
I will continue to go to Holy Mass either at the Novus Ordo Service in Augusta or the Latin Mass in Lewiston every week and Holy days, and hopefully a few extra days per week, I will be as generous as I can be in the weekly collection, I will give to ‘Wounded Warriors’ and to the Edmundites in Selma Alabama, where they have been since 1937, but to ‘Peter’s Pence’ – forget it.
History teaches us that reform in the Catholic Church starts at the very lowest level – us common every-day church goers, and we start with fasting and prayer.
There’s your “man of character,” Cardinal Tobin; the one you “can really talk with,” Cardinal Gregory; the one who “is seamlessly pro-life,” Cardinal Cupich. Nice job, Cardinals. Well done, your eminences. Way to go, you who wear red to signify that you are willing to suffer martyrdom for the faith.
The party of death will not rest until every sweet, innocent little child is disposed of before he or she (yes, you heard me; *he* or *she*) has the chance to draw a breath.
Analogically we may compare Heinrich Himmler, former Catholic, chicken farmer who espoused the Gottgläubig movement [indeterminate belief in god] and driving force of the Holocaust, the murder of undesirables, thought a threat to German purity and burden to the economy, to Joseph ‘Joe’ Biden former Catholic, car salesman who espouses nominal Catholicism and the driving force of America’s Abortion industry for the murder undesirables, predominantly pre natal infants, but including post partum survivors who pose a threat to the economy [as argued by Party Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin] and an inconvenience to mothers, now in Party terminology called birthers.
Analogy is never a perfect comparison, but there are similarities. Would the reader not agree?
In terms of essence, yes, Fr. Peter, but not in terms of volume.
Himmler, the chicken farmer, and his quotidian murderers were responsible for the deaths of a mere 50 or 60 million civilians and combatants.
That’s approximately as many deaths as are recorded each *year* around the world now.
So Himmler, as thoroughly despicable as he was, wouldn’t be worthy to loose the sandal strap of chickens*** Biden or Pelosi — or Obama or Schumer or any of the rest of the murder-glutted Democratic ilk — when it comes to slaughtering innocent people.
And, needless to say, there’s enough blood guilt to spill over onto all the Catholics who have voted for the great Democratic holocaust, the most horrific scourge to beset humanity in all of our sordid history.
Bidencalls himself Catholic?He is committing Mortal sin by going to Communion while by agreeing on abortion!He dosn’t seem to care one iota about this and keeps going to Holy Mass!He is in mortal sin and I guess, agrees with it.He needs prayers.
It won’t stop with the unborn; imagine three or four orderlies who have been given their instructions regarding your future; you struggle in your aged and/or diseased ridden state but you cannot overpower against them as they hold down your limbs and insert the pill under your tongue.
The state has decided.
I agree with Fr. Morello’s statement.
I pray for this man since he is closing in on the eventual day when his natural life here on earth will be over. I pray that he will meet a most merciful God but I know that this same God is all Just as well. I suspect that God will ask him, “Where was your mercy toward those lives I had created?”.
What more does Biden have to do before Rome says enough!. There is no point in the pope condemning abortion in an obscure speech but then publicly support Biden and Pelosi. Actions speek louder than words.
Why is it that, when the Biden White House gives us a “photo op” of his signing an executive order to kill the unborn, there never are any children in the picture to witness this historic event? Just asking.
Right on!!!
The almost complete lack of any meaningful response, even rhetorical, from the hierarchy of the Church to this all-out war on Christian morality, led partly by self-professed Catholics, does not merely indict, but convicts those who have completely abdicated their responsibility. The judgement of history will be justifiably severe. It will pale in comparison to judgement of God. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to remind the incredibly complacent bureaucrats who hold positions of authority in the Church that they will soon have to give an account for what they did and did not do during their lives. Perhaps, some are for all practical purposes out of reach, but others could be jolted out of their slumber.
Good points, and this absence of appropriate leadership and response exposes the deep rot of corruption in the hierarchy. I honestly don’t know how the church will move forward in the faith with leaders who have no spiritual insight into themselves or the great issues of the day. Is there hope for renewal and restoration or will we need to abandon ship and salvage what we can?
Tony W. – your 7/9/22 @6:17 – well said.
All that you say is true. Reflect for a moment on what consequences that entails. The “lack of any meaningful response” from the “hierarchy of the Church” over the past 50 years renders them guilty of formal cooperation in the horrendous mortal sin and crime of the murder of 60 million innocent babies in the United States alone by their silence and refusal to act. Their sin and crime invokes their latae sententiae excommunication from the Church, including loss of their episcopal offices. On what basis, therefore, can they be obeyed since they are no longer members of the Church?
Friday July 8 – “Biden to sign abortion executive order in response to Dobbs.”
And on Sunday, July 10, if he’s in D.C., he will receive Holy Communion with the blessing of Cardinal Gregory (and the Pope) – WHEREVER he is he will go to Communion.
Meanwhile – efforts to abolish the Latin Mass are ongoing from Rome with the blessing of the Pope, the Pope grants a public audience to one of the must virulent American ‘catholic’ supporters of abortion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Pope has a very public sit-down with fellow Jesuit Fr. James Martin, patron saint of the lgbtq folks,
yada yada yada.
And at some point when we regular Catholics – including us ‘restorationists’ go to Sunday Mass, there will be a 2nd collection for ‘Peter’s Pence’, aka the Pope.
Speaking for JUST MYSELF – Forget it.
I will continue to go to Holy Mass either at the Novus Ordo Service in Augusta or the Latin Mass in Lewiston every week and Holy days, and hopefully a few extra days per week, I will be as generous as I can be in the weekly collection, I will give to ‘Wounded Warriors’ and to the Edmundites in Selma Alabama, where they have been since 1937, but to ‘Peter’s Pence’ – forget it.
History teaches us that reform in the Catholic Church starts at the very lowest level – us common every-day church goers, and we start with fasting and prayer.
At what point does Biden’s archbishop in DC create scandal by not cracking down on him?
“Biden, a self-proclaimed catholic……”.
Reads better CWR, no?
There’s your “man of character,” Cardinal Tobin; the one you “can really talk with,” Cardinal Gregory; the one who “is seamlessly pro-life,” Cardinal Cupich. Nice job, Cardinals. Well done, your eminences. Way to go, you who wear red to signify that you are willing to suffer martyrdom for the faith.