Pete Buttigieg speaks during a online fundraising event Monday night put on by a group called “White Dudes for Harris.” / Credit: Screenshot @TPostMillennial from 7/29/24; last visited 7/31/24
National Catholic Register, Jul 31, 2024 / 15:32 pm (CNA).
Legal abortion makes men freer than they would be without it, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Monday — leading pro-life advocates to respond that that’s the problem.
Buttigieg, 42, who has been floated as a possible running mate for likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, made the comment during an online fundraising event Monday night put on by a group called “White Dudes for Harris.”
“I’m so glad she has made freedom the theme of her campaign, and I think in so many ways that’s what’s at stake. And, yes, women’s freedom is Exhibit A after Donald Trump demolished the right to choose. But, of course, men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care,” Buttigieg said.
Pro-life advocates reacting to Buttigieg’s comments said he put his finger on a problem with abortion: sex without responsibility.
“Buttigieg is just admitting what we have always known about abortion: that it empowers men to exploit women,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association, radio show co-host, and author of the 2017 book “Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female.”
“Buttigieg’s male ‘freedom’ comes at the cost of women’s freedom. It creates a world where men are ‘free’ to use women and women are coerced into abortions they don’t want to have,” McGuire said by email. “That’s not authentic freedom. It’s just domination by another name.”
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, called Buttigieg’s comments on abortion “creepy and disgusting.”
“Pete Buttigieg is recklessly suggesting that legal abortion makes men ‘more free’ as they can push a woman into having an abortion in order to shun responsibility,” Tobias told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, by text. “If men are part of creating a new life, they should accept the responsibility that goes along with caring for their child and the child’s mother.”
Emily Davis, communications spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said Buttigieg’s comment applies to her ex-boyfriend, who, she says, tried to pressure her into having an abortion after she unexpectedly got pregnant. She refused and gave birth to the baby.
“Not only have I experienced this firsthand, but every day more women come forward to talk about how they were pressured or coerced into unwanted abortions, often by male partners,” Davis told the Register by email.
“These brave women have a question for the Democrats: Where was our freedom?” Davis said. “So far, the Democrats have no answer. Under abortion czar Kamala Harris, they’re too committed to pushing an all-trimester, no-limits abortion agenda.”
Buttigieg’s list of ‘freedoms’
Buttigieg spoke for almost five minutes during the White Dudes for Harris event Monday. While abortion was first on his list, other examples of freedom Buttigieg offered included contraception, in vitro fertilization, and same-sex marriage as well as Obamacare, climate change, and joining a labor union.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Register contacted the press office of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which Buttigieg leads, seeking a response to the pro-life advocates’ criticism of his remarks but did not hear back by deadline.
This storywas first publishedby the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
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Washington D.C., May 28, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- The House on Wednesday evening passed legislation to respond to the mass detention and other human rights violations against Uyghurs in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2020 / 02:18 pm (CNA).- Police are appealing to the public for help and a parish is requesting prayers after a tabernacle containing the Eucharist was stolen from a church in Boone, North Carolina on June 16.
The Adoration Chapel at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. / Photo Credit: Aaron Miller, Miller Design & Marketing
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 20, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
“Awesome. Awesome.”
That’s how Anna Sudomerski, the communications coordinator at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina, describes the parish’s eucharistic adoration program.
St. Peter’s is among the parishes in the United States that are hosting perpetual eucharistic adoration with the Blessed Sacrament exposed 24 hours a day.
Since Church law dictates that exposition of the Blessed Sacrament requires at least one adorer present at all times, this means the parishes that opt for this extraordinary form of worship must coordinate a major year-round effort to ensure at least one volunteer is present before the Eucharist every hour of the day.
Eucharistic adoration, whether exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, is an ancient custom of the Church dating back to its earliest centuries. Yet its practice today occurs among flagging faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, with U.S. Catholics signaling a growing reluctance to believe that Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
Yet multiple parishes around the country in recent years have maintained vibrant adoration initiatives, including St. Peter’s, which began its perpetual adoration in the early 1990s.
Sudomerski said the St. Peter’s adoration program started at the parish’s original historic church in downtown Beaufort. With the construction of a new church building in 2006, adoration moved to a purpose-built chapel there.
For years, Sudomerski said, the adoration program was run by team captains who each supervised a specific stretch of hours within a given 24-hour period.
“They were in charge of certain times, like from midnight to 6 a.m., in case the adorer could not make it, so the captain would have to find a substitute or cover the hour themselves,” she told CNA. “We had four team captains covering midnight to 6, 6 to noon, noon to 6, and 6 to midnight.”
She said the church’s adoption of the sign-up software Adoration Pro “made it a lot easier for people to sign up.”
“From there, ever since, we’ve done several campaigns,” she said. “One to pass out interest forms to see who would be interested in what hour. We just finished another campaign because Father thought the Eucharist is the most important thing that we have. We’ve done callouts, mailings.”
Light of the World Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado
Kathryn Nygaard, the communications director at Light of the World Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado, outside of Denver, said the parish has maintained an adoration program since 2007.
“There are two parishioners who are the main adoration chapel coordinators and they do an incredible job,” she said. “In addition, there are 24 ‘hourly coordinators’ to assist with making sure substitutes fill in during open hours and communicating with the adorers in their specific hour.”
“There are approximately 270 people involved in adoration, as either regularly scheduled adorers or as substitutes,” she said. The church hosts two “renewal weekends” in February for adorers to re-up for the coming year; regular announcements are also made at weekend Masses to attract more interest.
Adorers at Light of the World use the church software Flocknote to communicate with one another, Nygaard said. “Most requests for substitutes are filled within 1-2 days,” she noted.
Bishops aim to ‘start a fire’ of eucharistic renewal
The U.S. bishops last year launched the National Eucharistic Revival, meant to “start a fire” of eucharistic devotion among Catholics in the United States. The initiative was first conceived following the 2019 Pew poll showing low numbers of Catholics with a belief in the Real Presence.
As part of the three-year program, parishes around the country have been encouraged to launch Eucharist-focused programs and events to draw parishioners into a deeper relationship with Jesus through the Blessed Sacrament.
Next year, the bishops will host a National Eucharistic Congress featuring multiple high-profile Catholic speakers along with what is expected to be a crowd of about 80,000 Catholics. Pope Francis in June called next year’s national congress “a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States.”
St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska
At St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska, worshippers have been keeping perpetual adoration there for more than 62 years — since Feb. 14, 1961, according to a live clock on the parish’s website.
The exposed Blessed Sacrament at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska. Credit: Tim Cumberland
The parish on its website says the roots of its adoration program go back to 1949 and expanded thereafter. The program now includes worshippers from other nearby parishes who come to participate in adoration.
Parishioner Tim Cumberland told CNA the church is “blessed to have about 550 people in the program.”
“A few years ago, we went to an automated process of managing our perpetual adoration program, using the Adoration Pro software,” Cumberland said. “This has greatly improved our ability for our adorers to find subs online when necessary. A request for a substitute is usually filled within minutes.”
Kim Waller said the 25-year-old adoration program at Holy Infant Catholic Church in Ballwin, Missouri, still uses a coordinator-led sign-up program instead of an online sign-up. Like many programs, Holy Infant breaks down management of the adoration schedule into hourly segments.
“The 24 hourly coordinators form the backbone of perpetual adoration,” she said. “They ensure that there is at least one adorer present in the chapel at all times. The hourly coordinator reviews the sign-up list weekly to ensure that their committed hourly adorer fulfills his/her commitment and contacts the adorer if she/he has not been to adoration as committed for two consecutive weeks.”
A new team of coordinators just took over in January, Waller said. “The last several years, the ministry was administered by a couple who since have passed within six months of each other,” she said.
St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina
Donna Pierce told CNA she helped launch the 24/7 adoration program at St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina, roughly 30 years ago.
“I think we have about 10-15 people who have maintained their Holy Hour since it began, and currently we have 318 weekly adorers and about 60 substitutes, not counting the many people that pop in the chapel when they can,” she said.
Pierce said a priest from a perpetual adoration apostolate helped the parish launch the program. “He told us that having perpetual adoration is actually much easier to run than a 40-hours or other time frame,” she said. “Adorers incorporate their hour into their schedule, so you don’t have to keep signing up from scratch.”
The exposed Blessed Sacrament in the St. Claire Chapel at St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina. Credit: Lori Rainchuso
She said the parish maintains participation in the program by way of biannual talks at Masses (which Pierce described as “our fall and Lent blitzes”). These efforts usually result in upwards of a few dozen sign-ups.
On the website for the National Eucharistic Revival, the bishops say that the current year of the program is focused on “fostering eucharistic devotion at the parish level, strengthening our liturgical life through the faithful celebration of the Mass, eucharistic adoration, missions, resources, preaching, and organic movements of the Holy Spirit.”
Catholic evangelist Tim Glemkowski in a video for the revival urged parish leaders to “prioritize personal encounters with Jesus in the Eucharist” over the course of the year.
“The heart of this invitation … is to create space in our parish calendar this year for people to come and encounter Jesus in the Eucharist personally,” he said. “This could mean parishes that don’t have perpetual adoration start that opportunity, or opportunities for eucharistic processions, or different devotional experiences.”
Pierce said that starting the St. Mary program decades ago was a daunting prospect, but she went ahead with it by putting her trust in God.
“It was terrifying when Msgr. [Thomas] Evatt asked me to be head coordinator to start it so long ago — I was 30 years old with a toddler and working part time,” Pierce said. “So I made a deal with God. He would have to be responsible for sustaining it, and we would just be his instruments.”
“How many, many times he made it obvious he was running it!” she said.
Graces for eternity
St. Bonaventure’s website, meanwhile, predicts that the graces of perpetual adoration will redound not just in the present but for eternity.
“Someday far, far from now, there will be a magnificent heavenly banquet where all of the adorers in the St. Bonaventure adoration program will be reunited,” the parish’s website says.
“Won’t it be wonderful,” the website continues, “for all of us who have been in the program to share stories of how many of our lives, and the lives of those we touched as a result, were radically changed by this personal and enduring encounter with Our Lord!”
Connect the dots:
The sexual revolution and porn, a contraceptive culture, abortion backstop, gender politics, third-option homosexuality, tribal LGBTQ religion, gender theory and transgender “rites”… and now Butt-gig as a running “mate,” or whatever.
Unfair to women, Dude Buttigieg and his spouse need not worry about pregnancy. Although Buttigieg is a Maltese surname meaning chicken owner, poulterer. They can father chickens.
The systemic lack of holding any male responsible for fathering a child as to child support etc. is widespread and what feeds the killings of the unborn. A society should enforce anyone who fathers a child to support through their 18th birthday which is the law. If it was enforced, there might be a decrease in pregnancy out of wedlock.
JML – it should extend through age 25 since kids need to learn skills before they can be thrown out into the world in this economy. This idea of “rugged individualism” and “self-sufficiency” by age 18 is a counter-productive concept to building a community that upholds family values. And the very reason we now find ourselves inthe mess we are currently in. Rather than kicking the kids out of the nest and to the curb at age 18, we should do more to foster generational family homes and normalize children living with their parents until, and maybe even after the children are grown and married.
“Self-sufficiency”, “independence”, and “rugged individualism” are ok in very small doses and for a select few people. But overall they are also the steroids which exacerbate societal rot. No man is an island.
The idea that children should be out of the family home and living completely independent lives by age 18 is a strange one that we, as Catholics, should do better to fight against.
Child support’s enforced where we live. Worst offender deadbeat dads have their info & photos published. And I’ve seen pictures of deadbeat moms who owe child support published too. Those are far fewer in number though.
So sad. For decades while I was growing up, the Democratic Party proclaimed itself as “the Party of the Little Man.” They are definitely NOT the Party of the Littlest Man.
It seems like everyone’s issue here is with the Pick-Up Artists, Mens “Right’s” Activists, and MGTOWs. Yet for some reason rather than holding such selfish men accountable it’s the women who will be attacked, bullied, berated, and humiliated for their actions.
Connect the dots:
The sexual revolution and porn, a contraceptive culture, abortion backstop, gender politics, third-option homosexuality, tribal LGBTQ religion, gender theory and transgender “rites”… and now Butt-gig as a running “mate,” or whatever.
Unfair to women, Dude Buttigieg and his spouse need not worry about pregnancy. Although Buttigieg is a Maltese surname meaning chicken owner, poulterer. They can father chickens.
Finally! The unvarnished truth from a Democrat!
The systemic lack of holding any male responsible for fathering a child as to child support etc. is widespread and what feeds the killings of the unborn. A society should enforce anyone who fathers a child to support through their 18th birthday which is the law. If it was enforced, there might be a decrease in pregnancy out of wedlock.
JML – it should extend through age 25 since kids need to learn skills before they can be thrown out into the world in this economy. This idea of “rugged individualism” and “self-sufficiency” by age 18 is a counter-productive concept to building a community that upholds family values. And the very reason we now find ourselves inthe mess we are currently in. Rather than kicking the kids out of the nest and to the curb at age 18, we should do more to foster generational family homes and normalize children living with their parents until, and maybe even after the children are grown and married.
“Self-sufficiency”, “independence”, and “rugged individualism” are ok in very small doses and for a select few people. But overall they are also the steroids which exacerbate societal rot. No man is an island.
The idea that children should be out of the family home and living completely independent lives by age 18 is a strange one that we, as Catholics, should do better to fight against.
Child support’s enforced where we live. Worst offender deadbeat dads have their info & photos published. And I’ve seen pictures of deadbeat moms who owe child support published too. Those are far fewer in number though.
The intrinsically disordered effeminate Peter Buttigieg is in for a rude awakening during his particular judgment.
So sad. For decades while I was growing up, the Democratic Party proclaimed itself as “the Party of the Little Man.” They are definitely NOT the Party of the Littlest Man.
It seems like everyone’s issue here is with the Pick-Up Artists, Mens “Right’s” Activists, and MGTOWs. Yet for some reason rather than holding such selfish men accountable it’s the women who will be attacked, bullied, berated, and humiliated for their actions.
My earlier comment was a response to the title of the article only.
Somebody explain to me what Buttigieg’s game plan is here.