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USCCB official: NEA abortion support ‘appalling’

July 12, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Jul 12, 2019 / 02:10 pm (CNA).- The lay head of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic education secretariat has decried the decision of nation’s largest teachers union to recognize abortion as a fundamental right.

“It’s an appalling development,” Mary Pat Donoghue, Executive Director of the Secretariat for Catholic Education at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told CNA, Thursday. “Here you have the largest union of educators in the country, basically affirming the destruction of those they claim to serve.”

The National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly last weekend adopted agenda items recognizing the “fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade” and supporting the controversial Equality Act, at the NEA’s annual meeting in Houston from July 4-7.

“The NEA vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade,” stated New Business Item 56, adopted by the Representative Assembly at the NEA Annual Meeting in Houston, attended by more than 6,000 delegates representing state and local affiliates, student members, retired members and others.

Composed of around 8,000 delegates in total, the NEA’s Representative Assembly calls itself “the largest democratic deliberative assembly in the world, which at the Annual Meeting determines NEA yearly policy priorities and a strategic plan, among other items.”

The statement in support of abortion was included in a business item honoring survivors of abuse in the #MeToo movement. The NEA did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but according to the NEA website, the rationale given for the item was that “the most misogynistic forces, under Trump, want to abolish the gains of the women’s right movement [sic].”

While the Assembly adopted the abortion resolution, it defeated a business item declaring that the NEA “will re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning” by making it the “lens through which we will assess every NEA program and initiative.”

“That tells me that the child is not truly the focus of NEA,” Donoghue said to CNA, noting that the move to support abortion is a mirror for society, “that we no longer have an understanding of the human person that begins with the Creator.”

“When God is separated out from the human person, then this is where these types of ideologies really take root and develop and grow,” she said.

However, Donoghue drew a distinction between the NEA’s Annual Meeting of several thousand delegates and the millions of public school teachers in the U.S. who were not present at the meeting, and may not be members of the NEA.

“We can’t look at this as reflective of the way that the average public school teacher would approach his or her job,” she said, noting that many teachers have “the desire to serve and to help and support children.”

The NEA Representative Assembly also voted to adopt a business item saying the NEA would “organize and mobilize” in support of the Equality Act as a “top legislative priority.”

The Equality Act establishes anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in areas including education, housing, employment, jury duty, and credit. The 2019 legislation was introduced in Congress as H.R. 5 by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and as S. 788 by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

While U.S. bishops supported the goal of ending unjust discrimination against persons, they have signaled their opposition to the bill because it would “impose sweeping regulations” that would promote redefinitions of the human person, using state coercion to threaten freedoms of thought and religion.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bishop Frank Dewayne of Venice, Florida wrote a letter to U.S. Senators in March outlining the problematic aspects of the legislation.

The bishops pointed out that it would “remove women and girls from protected legal existence,” mandate “uniform assent to new beliefs about human identity that are contrary to those held by many,” and be exempt from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, thus bypassing fundamental protections for religious freedom that were enacted by a broad bipartisan majority.

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Rise in crimes against churches in France shock faithful, prompt reflection

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Paris, France, Jul 11, 2019 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- Vandalism, theft, arson and other increasing attacks on churches in France have led to debates about their causes, amid shock to the community, questions bout the perpetrators, and debates over what the attacks might mean about French culture and the place of Christianity.

“Those downplaying the vandalism, which include most leading newspapers and politicians, point to evidence that the attacks are the small-bore crimes of small-time miscreants. Those concerned that the attacks pose a more serious threat expressly dismiss that perspective,” American journalist and author Richard Bernstein has said in an essay for RealClearInvestigations titled “Anti-Christian Attacks in France Quietly Quadrupled. Why?”

Bernstein sees merit in both perspectives, putting them in the context of pressing French questions about populism, national identity, immigration, tradition, authority, and power.

At the same time, he acknowledges the deep concern of Christian communities which suffer such attacks and vandalism, even when they are not “hate crimes” properly speaking.

“Still, even if many anti-Christian acts are not hate crimes intended to intimidate a community of believers, the fact is that there are a large number of attacks on Christian sites that are sacred to many people,” he said. “Communities are shocked and made to feel vulnerable, in part by the sense that the incidents have proliferated so dramatically over the past few years, and they are taking place in virtually every corner of France: urban and rural areas, large towns and small villages alike.”

The Conference of French Bishops said there were 228 “violent anti-Christian acts” from January to March 2019.

In 2018, French police reported 129 thefts and 877 incidents of vandalism at Catholic sites, mostly churches and cemeteries. The French Minister of the Interior counted slightly fewer numbers of anti-Christian incidents that year.

Such attacks quadrupled in number from 2008 to 2019.

While France has suffered more attacks than any other country in Europe, their numbers have increased across Europe.

Some leaders downplay the attacks.

“We do not want to develop a discourse of persecution,” Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseile, the head of the French Bishops Conference, told the magazine Le Point. “We do not wish to complain.”

In June vandals toppled more than 100 tombstones in the main Catholic cemetery in Toulouse. The incident received little national press coverage, but locals too did not want to give it attention.

In Normandy in 2016, two men who professed allegiance to the Islamic State group murdered Father Jacques Hamel while he was celebrating Mass. That same year in Paris, police thwarted Muslim extremists who attempted to blow up a car near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Some feared anti-Christian sentiment was behind another Islamic State group sympathizer’s gun and knife attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2018.

The backdrop of these and other major terrorist incidents have heightened fears that Christians would be more directly targeted.

The April 15 fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame shocked the world as the 19th-century roof and spire were destroyed, though the structure was saved from collapse.

As soon as the fire was reported, social media influencers and others with no presence on the scene spread speculation, rumors and even hoaxes claiming that the fire was an act of terrorism. Anonymous internet accounts as well as right-wing activists, nationalists, and white supremacists used the event to fan anti-Muslim sentiment, NBC News reported in April.

In June investigators said they had been unable to determine the cause and there was no evidence the fire was intentional. They said they would consider the possibility of negligence, including electrical malfunction or a poorly extinguished cigarette, as a cause for the fire.

Vandalism and attacks on Christian churches often appear to lack any organized coordination or shared motives.

Earlier this year, when six churches were set on fire or vandalized in one week, the perpetrators of one incident were two youths. The perpetrator in another was a 35-year-old homeless man.

Of identified perpetrators of anti-Christian attacks, more than 60 percent are minors. Many perpetrators “appear to be disaffected young people, or the psychologically disturbed or homeless, rather than members of organized groups advancing a political agenda,” Bernstein said.

“Virtually none of the reported attacks have been against people; they are all against buildings, cemeteries or other physical objects,” he added.

About 60% of vandalism incidents involved graffiti like satanic inscriptions, anarchist symbols, swastikas, or nationalist or neo-Nazi slogans. In Bernstein’s view, this “would seem to represent a kind of ugly desperate social fringe than a general growth of anti-Christian hatred.”

For Bernstein, the evidence shows attacks by Muslims “account for a small fraction of anti-Christian crimes.”

The French government itself downplays anti-Christian actions for fear of stoking anti-Muslim reaction and retaliation, though there have not been any known incidents of retaliation.

While some commentators wonder why attacks on other groups draw more attention than attacks on Christians, Bernstein attributes this to the relative historical security of Catholics, especially in comparisons to Jews who were persecuted by French collaborators with Nazis in the Second World War.

Philosopher and cultural commentator Pierre Manent suggested that many churches are targets of opportunity, telling Bernstein, “This vandalism is drawn to Christian sites because they’re less defended and present little risk, and there are a lot of them.”

Church attendance has declined and the scandals about sexual abuse of young people and children by clergy make the Church “seem a weak and easy target,” Bernstein said.

Jean-Francois Colosimo, a historian and theologian who is general director of the Editions du Cerf publishing house, said it is not “Christianophobia” but “a loss of the sense of the sacred” that is to blame.

Bernstein’s essay cited an attack in the southwest France town of Lauvar. Two teenage boys sneaked into the town’s 700-year-old Cathedral of St. Alain, set the altar on fire, turned a crucifix upside down, threw another crucifix into the nearby river, and deformed a statue of Christ.

Mayor of Lauvar Bernard Carayon told Bernstein the attack was far different than misbehavior like bathroom graffiti. He blamed “Christianophobia.”

“The two boys who set fire to the altar and defaced the statue of Christ weren’t just drunk; they carried out their attack purposefully, taking their time, and then, after they left to tell their friends what they’d done, they went back inside, no doubt to check the results,” the mayor said, contending that the Catholic Church had wrongly prioritized inter-religious dialogue and working “to avoid conflict.”

There has been vandalism and theft at the church, its pastor, Father Joseph Dequick said, but the police do not distinguish which is which. This means it is difficult to distinguish criminal theft from vandalism based in hostility to the Church.

“But when somebody turns a cross upside down, that’s an anti-Christian expression,” he said. “That represents a society that no longer transmits respect for values. It’s a loss of the sense of the sacred. It’s consumerism. Young people can do whatever they want now, have whatever they want. Where are the limits? Where are the parents?”

According to the priest, professions of atheism are fashionable and there is “a mood against the Church, against faith”

“The media are anti-Catholic. There a discourse against the Church. In France, in particular, there’s an anti-clerical feeling that goes back a long time,” the priest told Bernstein. “It’s not so much a religious argument as a political one. It’s a reaction against the moral limitations that the Church represents.”

Manent told Bernstein there is a cultural attitude that the Church is “an obstacle to contemporary life,” and this attitude “nourishes a certain hostility.”

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Teacher fired for abortion rights social media posts sues Catholic school in SC

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 5

Charleston, S.C., Jul 11, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- A teacher at a Catholic school in South Carolina whose contract was not renewed because of her posts on Facebook in support of abortion rights is now suing the school, claiming that her First Amendment rights have been violated.

According to the July 8 lawsuit, Elizabeth Cox taught at Bishop England High School in Charleston for 16 years before being informed at the end of the last school year, June 7, that her contract would not be renewed.

Cox had shared on Facebook several posts and links expressing pro-choice views, while at the same time listing the Catholic school publicly as her employer.

According to ABC News 4, included among Cox’s social media posts were a quotation from feminist activist Gloria Steinem asserting gun purchasers should be subjected to rigorous screenings similar to those of women seeking abortions, and an unattributed quotation casting suspicion on pro-life claims of people who do not also support gun bans, free healthcare, and other political causes ostensibly meant to protect and improve quality of life.

Another post includes a link to a Washington Post news story, without comment from the teacher, with the headline “Leslie Jones leads the charge against Alabama’s abortion ban in the SNL season finale,” the Charlotte Observer reports.

The Catholic Church has consistently condemned direct abortion, the intentional taking of an innocent human life, as a grave moral evil, and has upheld the sanctity of the life of the unborn child.

Teachers accepting jobs at Bishop England sign contracts agreeing to speak publicly and to act in accordance with Catholic beliefs, regardless of whether they are Catholic, to aid in the “intellectual and spiritual development of students according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church.” A copy of the contract is included in the lawsuit.

“When we confronted you with the post, you admitted to it and, moreover, reacted in a manner leading us to conclude you would not do so differently in the future,” Bishop England principal Patrick Finneran is quoted as saying in Cox’s termination letter.

“Parents send their children to [Bishop England] expressly because they want a Catholic teaching and upbringing. Your public expression of disagreement with Catholic values undermines that.”

The Diocese of Charleston is not named in the suit, but the school, Principal Finneran, and four additional people Cox believes to be involved in her firing are, ABC 4News reports.

In her lawsuit, Cox contends that her firing “violates political rights and privileges of free speech guaranteed by the United States Constitution and/or the Constitution of the State of South Carolina.” She also argues that her firing violates South Carolina law prohibiting the firing of employees for expressing political opinions.

Cox is seeking a monetary award as well as reinstatement as a teacher at Bishop England. The school has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.

“Officials with the Catholic Diocese of Charleston and Bishop England High School have received notice of the complaint that was filed on July 8. We will review and file a response to the lawsuit with the court in due time,” diocesan spokesperson Maria Aselage said in a statement to CNA.

Several other cases of teachers being fired for failing publicly to uphold Catholic teaching are ongoing in the US.

This week, a teacher at a Catholic school in Indianapolis whose contract was terminated due to his same-sex marriage announced he is suing the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, one day after reaching a settlement with the school.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC that government cannot interfere with religious institutions’ hiring and firing decisions regarding employees whom they consider to be ministers.

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Ariz. Catholic agency hopes to house asylum seekers in unused detention center

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Tucson, Ariz., Jul 11, 2019 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- A Catholic agency in Tucson, Arizona is hoping to transform an unused portion of a juvenile detention center into housing facilities for immigrants seeking asylum.

Since January, Catholic Community Services in Arizona has housed asylum seekers in the local Benedictine Monastery, the third largest shelter for migrants in the United States, according to the Sahuarita Sun. Due to monastery renovations, they must relocate later this month.

Arizona Public Media reported this week that a $100 one-year renewable lease is currently being drawn up for the organization to use a portion of the Pima County’s Juvenile Justice Complex.

The county board of supervisors must approve the move during the next board meeting in August.

The justice complex can hold 350 people, but currently houses less than 50. Catholic Community Services is hoping to use the additional 300 beds, plus an attached kitchen and laundry room, in a portion of the facility that is separate from the area still used as a juvenile detention center.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said the justice complex will provide a safer and healthier environment to shelter the migrants, who typically stay no longer than a few days.

“Even though the monastery was a lovely environment, it was not setup in its infrastructure for our needs. The plumbing system especially was a real challenge,” he said, according to Arizona Public Media.

The county would pay for operating costs, and would then request reimbursement from the federal government, which is responsible for the immigrants seeking asylum, the Sahuarita Sun reports.

Some renovations will be necessary, to make the space more comfortable and inviting. Jan Lesher, chief deputy county administrator, stressed that the asylum seekers are not being imprisoned, and the building will be altered to reflect that.

“What we hope to do is make it as seamless as possible for those who live in the community and those asylum seekers passing through,” she told Arizona Public Media.

 

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Colombian bishop to bless entire city to counter violence

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Buenaventura, Colombia, Jul 11, 2019 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Bishop Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya of Buenaventura will perform blessings throughout his cathedral city Saturday, hoping to counter it’s extreme violence, including kidnappings and murders.

Buenaventura is Colombia’s main port on the Pacific, and so is a key point in the international drug trade.

In recent years, Human Rights Watch has said the city’s neighborhoods are controlled by “paramilitary successor groups” which engage in extortion and violence.

Bishop Jaramillo had originally shared the idea of performing a blessing on the city from a helicopter. The news has been erroneously reported by some media as an exorcism.

The Bishop of Buenaventura told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language sister agency, July 10 that the blessing will be done July 13, but not from a helicopter.

“We are going to form a line of vehicles with a firetruck and a statue of Saint Bonaventure. We’re going to go to all locations, to the most difficult neighborhoods where people have been killed in recent years,” he explained.

The caravan and the people who will be waiting throughout the city “will form a people who are going to reinterpret those places of death so they will now be places of life,” Jaramillo said.

At every place the caravan stops, the bishop will offer a prayer, there will be a hymn, and the community will gather together to hear a testimony. “We’re going to pray for the victims and to then do a blessing,” he said.

“Where blood flowed, where blood was shed, we are now going to pour holy water as a sign of reparation at the place where those who died were struck down by violence,” the bishop stated.

Last month, the prelate told Agenzia Fides, “we’ve had 54 violent deaths so far this year, but there are a lot of people who have disappeared. And people don’t report it. The problem is there is still not a culture of reporting because there is fear, we have a society that is afraid to report.”

The bishop also denounced the existence of so-called “torture chambers” or “chop-up houses” where people who were kidnapped are tortured and killed because they got in the way of or did not support gangs and organized crime, something thought to have disappeared in 2015.

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Va. legislature ends gun session, after bishops had hoped for ‘genuine discussions’

July 11, 2019 CNA Daily News 2

Richmond, Va., Jul 11, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- The Virginia legislature adjourned Tuesday a special session called by the governor after fewer than two hours. The session was meant to consider gun control bills, and the state’s bishops had earlier expressed hope for dialogue.

The July 9 session was called by governor Ralph Northam (D); both houses of the General Assembly are controlled by Republicans with one-seat majorities.

“It is our hope that our elected officials will engage in genuine discussions about comprehensive legislation that will help save lives and make our communities safer,” Bishops Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Barry Knestout of Richmond had said in a July 8 statement ahead of the special session.

“We urge our state leaders to engage in civil and meaningful dialogue, seeking to combat all violence in our communities,” they added, while also recognizing “that many factors contribute to the violence in our society, which will not be solved by a single piece of legislation.”

Northam had called the special session in light of the May 31 killings in Virginia Beach, in which a gunman shot to death 12 people. The gunman, DeWayne Craddock, died in a shootout with police.

According to the AP, Northam had proposed eight gun control measures for the special session.

Senate majority leader Tommy Norment had proposed a bill July 8 to ban broadly guns in government buildings in the state. Norment’s fellow Republicans strongly objected to the bill, and it was withdrawn.

During the brief session, legislators did task a bipartisan crime commission with studying policy proposals that might have prevented the Virginia Beach killings.

In November, all 140 seats in both houses of the General Assembly are up for re-election, and gun control is expected to be an important topic of campaigning.

In their statement ahead of the special session, the bishops noted that they continue to keep in prayer Craddock’s 12 victims, and that “we also continue to pray for their families, those injured, their co-workers and those who provide assistance within the community.”

“We must also discern what can be done to make our communities safer and address the root causes of violence and terror,” they added.

“Respect and reverence for human life – all life, at every stage of development and in all circumstances – require us to protect it. The culture of violence pervading our society must be challenged.”

The bishops said that the Virginia Catholic Conference has advocated “for reasonable safety regulations for firearms and proper screening for those seeking to acquire a firearm.”

They added that “firearms often serve the legitimate purpose of self-defense and the defense of loved ones,” and that “mental health has been a factor in past shootings and more resources should be invested in early intervention for those at risk of committing a violent act due to mental illness.”

“We will continue to be advocates for proposals that promote a comprehensive approach to combating increasing occurrences of violence, keeping respect for all life at the forefront and ensuring the fundamental liberties of all Americans are protected,” the bishops stated.

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