Helena, Mont., May 10, 2019 / 04:07 pm (CNA).- A leading national pro-life group has criticized Montana’s governor for vetoing a bill that would require medical professionals to save babies who survive an abortion attempt.
Marjorie Dannenfelser,… […]
Atlanta, Ga., May 10, 2019 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Following the passage of the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act in Georgia earlier this week, a promised boycott by film and television figures has failed to materialize.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the bill into law on Wednesday. Actress Alyssa Milano wrote an open letter Kemp in March, threatening a widespread entertainment industry boycott should the LIFE Act pass. The letter was co-signed by about 50 Hollywood actors.
At the time of the bill’s signing, Kemp said that “I realize that some may challenge [this bill] in the court of law. But our job is to do what is right, not what is easy.”
So far, only the three companies–Blown Deadline, Killer Films, and Duplass Brothers Production– have said that they will only consider filming in Georgia if the law is overturned. None have previously worked in the state.
Milano herself is still filming for her current project “Insatiable,” which is shot in Atlanta. While she remains on set, the former child star of “Who’s the Boss?” told BuzzFeed News that she would not return to the show if it were to be renewed for a third season, unless production was moved from Georgia.
The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents entertainment companies such as Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Netflix, all of whom actually film movies and television shows in Georgia, has not taken any position on the boycott.
MPAA spokesman Chris Ortman told the Hollywood Reporter that the organization had taken no decision to boycott the state, citing its deep ties to the local economy and the likely legal challenges the law will face.
“It is important to remember that similar legislation has been attempted in other states, and has either been enjoined by the courts or is currently being challenged. The outcome in Georgia will also be determined through the legal process,” said Ortman, adding, “We will continue to monitor developments.”
Actress Ashley Bratcher, who lives in Georgia, did not join in on the calls for boycott. Bratcher, who starred as pro-life activist Abby Johnson in the film “Unplanned,” wrote a rebuttal to Milano defending the legislation and the sanctity of life. During the filming of Unplanned, Bratcher learned that she was herself nearly aborted.
The Supreme Court found in the 1973 decision Roe vs. Wade that a woman in the United States has a constitutional right to abortion. Since that decision, laws that criminalize abortion prior to fetal viability have typically been overturned as unconstitutional.
The so-called “heartbeat bills” have faced challenges in every state where they have been passed. These legal battles have prompted some pro-life advocates, including Catholic bishops, to withhold endorsing the legislation.
Tennessee’s Catholic bishops chose to oppose their state’s heartbeat bill over concerns that it would not stand up to judicial scrutiny. They voiced concern that it was an imprudent approach to fighting legal abortion, citing other states where legal challenges to such bills ended up further enshrining a legal “right to abortion” and forcing the state to pay significant sums of money to the lawyers representing the pro-abortion challengers to the laws.
The Georgia law is set to go into effect on January 1, several pro-abortion organizations have promised to challenge it in court.
The entertainment industry also threatened to boycott Georgia should Kemp be elected governor. This boycott did not materialize.
Vatican City, May 10, 2019 / 10:54 am (CNA).- Though dramatic representations of demonic possessions, as seen in Hollywood, can make them appear to be the primary method of the devil, one Dominican priest and exorcist has warned that the greater and mo… […]
Rome, Italy, May 10, 2019 / 07:55 am (CNA).- EWTN Global Catholic Network announced Friday that it will launch a news service for the African continent.
ACI-Africa will be a Nairobi, Kenya-based Catholic news agency, publishing content in Engli… […]
Phoenix, Ariz., May 10, 2019 / 12:08 am (CNA).- Despite the scandals of clerical sexual abuse that the Catholic Church has suffered in past decades, the Church in the United States has also enjoyed a “renewal” in priestly formation, says Bi… […]
Dagupan, Philippines, May 9, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- A new bishop in the Philippines has called for Catholics to show courage in the face of violence and persecution.
Speaking at his own consecration, Bishop Fidelis Layog addressed the difficult circu… […]
Tapachula, Mexico, May 9, 2019 / 05:52 pm (CNA).- The Mexican Bishops’ Conference has made a public request for help from the country’s authorities, as well as all people of good will, in addressing the migration crisis at the country’s southern border.
In a May 7 statement entitled “Request for Help,” the bishops noted that “we Mexicans have always been known for our joy, solidarity, treating others well and hospitality.”
However, they lamented, with the recent migrant caravans, “some people have taken on attitudes of rejection, indifference, xenophobia, discrimination and racism.”
Thousands of migrants have arrived in recent months at the southern border of Mexico on their way to the United States. Many come from Central American countries facing gang violence, economic crisis and environmental instability, as well as from Haiti, Cuba and African nations.
While Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador campaigned on a pledge of protecting migrants and their rights, the Mexican government has begun detaining caravans as numbers of migrants arriving in the country increased.
Mexico is currently facing a “humanitarian emergency” as migration caravans move through the country, often lacking basic shelter and necessities, the bishops warned.
They pledged “to do everything possible to be a Samaritan Church to make the journey of our brother migrants less onerous.”
“We have requested Caritas National’s action in organizing the aid in our country, just as we are motivating the different dioceses in our homeland to raise up an additional effort of generosity among our parishioners on behalf of our brothers,” they said.
The bishops particularly noted concern over the situation on the southern Mexican border, “specifically what the city of Tapachula is experiencing in Chiapas.” They said that the vast number of migrants has outpaced aid from the Church and government.
With the migrant assistance station overburdened, the migrants now wander the streets in search of help, they said.
“At the door of the southern border there are thousands of our brothers, people who have already gone several days without eating and who are sleeping in the streets. There are children, elderly people, the sick, some women close to going into labor.”
The bishops of Mexico called on the federal government to activate an emergency plan and request humanitarian assistance for those in need, particularly in Tapachula. They also asked for clarification regarding the legal situation of those seeking to pass through the country.
“We urge adequately addressing this moment of crisis in which our country has the opportunity to show its true level of humanity,” the bishops said. “As a Church we offer our prayer, all our support and help.”
Denver, Colo., May 9, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- When Sara Haynes heard about the shooting at STEM High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Tuesday, she prayed. A Catholic school teacher in Denver until just recently, she knew some of her former students were now high schoolers at STEM.
When Haynes learned out that Kendrick Castillo, a former student of hers, was the lone casualty in the May 7 shooting, she cried immediately.
Then she reached out to the other students who had been in the same 7th and 8th grade math and religion classes at Notre Dame Catholic School as Castillo. Details of Kendrick’s death were not yet public, but her students guessed Castillo had died trying to protect others, Haynes said.
“I went to my students and we were all just sharing together. And I said: ‘Do you guys think that he blocked the shooter?’ And they said: ‘Yeah.’ I mean, it just wasn’t a shock to us” that he would give his life for others, Haynes said.
On Wednesday, Kendick’s father, John Castillo, confirmed to the Denver Post what he had learned from witnesses and the coroner: that Kendrick died while charging the shooter to save his friends.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” John Castillo told the Denver Post. “He cared enough about people that he would do something like that, even though it’s against my better judgment.”
“I wish he had gone and hid,” Castillo added, “but that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”
Kendrick’s friends and fellow students share the same sentiment, Haynes said.
“Every time I see a new kid that is in shock or crying, I ask – ‘But are you surprised?’ And they say ‘No, I’m not surprised at all. I’m just mad because I didn’t want him to have to do it. But of course he was going to do it.’”
Haynes said she remembers Kendrick as an unfailingly kind student, who cared deeply about everyone, who tried hard in school, and who wasn’t afraid to have fun and be goofy.
“Kendrick is probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever known,” Haynes said. “He’s really quirky and sweet. And quiet, but not really. He’s one of those kids that he knows the appropriate time to be quiet, and then when it’s the appropriate time for him to just be a total dweeb, he’ll be a total dweeb.”
He was always joyful, Haynes said, and funny – as her trove of goofy videos of Kendrick prove, she said. The only time when he was not joyful was at parent-teacher conferences, Haynes recalled. Kendrick tried hard in school, and he loved technology and excelled at science – but math was harder for him, she said.
“He would get so serious at parent-teacher conferences because he struggled academically and…most middle school kids put blame on other people, but he just always took the responsibility so seriously that he would cry,” she recalled.
“And we would tell him, ‘You don’t need to cry! We just want you to turn in your work.’ And he’d be like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ He really was such a deep thinker even if he didn’t look like it, because he was so jolly. He had this joy that shone through.”
Sr. Loretta Gerk was another teacher who knew Kendrick while he was a student at Notre Dame Catholic School – she taught him in physical education classes, from Kindergarten through eighth grade.
“He was the neatest kid,” Gerk told CNA. “He was so kind and gentle, but yet, he was all boy too, you know what I mean?”
Gerk said that she would sometimes worry about the kind and gentle students, because they could be prone to teasing. But no one ever teased or made fun of Kendrick – he was just too likeable, she said.
“Kids are sometimes cruel to each other,” she said. “But the kids weren’t mean to him. You couldn’t be mean to him.”
“If any little kids were crying or something, he would go talk to them. He would reach out to them. He would notice those things,” Gerk said.
Gerk said when she found out Kendrick had died in the shooting, her heart and her stomach hurt. When she found out he had died trying to rush the shooter, she thought: “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
A hunter who loved his elk hunting trips with his father, Kendrick’s familiarity with gun safety may have given him additional courage when he rushed the shooter, Gerk said.
Not only was Kendrick kind in school, but he was also a very helpful and active person at church, Gerk recalled. He would often tag along with his dad to Knights of Columbus events, Gerk said. He would usher at Mass with his dad on Saturday nights, and help serve breakfast with the Knights of Columbus during Catholic Schools week.
“Kendrick would be in the kitchen, and he had a blue apron that said ‘Knights of Columbus.’ Kendrick was in there with his dad, helping,” she said.
Cece Bedard knew Kendrick because her dad, too, was in the Knights of Columbus. In a message to CNA, Bedard said that Kendrick “loved his faith and he really loved to serve others.”
It was not just that Kendrick did one heroic act, Bedard said, but “he lived the life of a hero, always helping others to the point where I’m not quite sure what he did for himself.”
He loved his Catholic faith, Bedard said, and once told her when they were young that although he couldn’t picture himself being a priest, he thought “the way of life (of a priest) was simply beautiful.”
“He truly was a living saint,” Bedard said.
Deacon Chuck Parker knew Kendrick at Notre Dame parish, where he remembers him as an altar server and a young usher, and a favorite greeter at the doors of the church.
“If anybody could exemplify a minister of hospitality it was Kendrick,” Parker said. “Even at such a young age, he was always very kind and compassionate, very engaging with people…people loved coming in and being greeted by Kendrick.”
“You hear a lot of people say that he was really a good kid,” Parker said. “And he was really a good kid, he just really was.”
Parker, like many others, said he “wasn’t surprised” when he heard how Kendrick died, “because he was such a loving kid.”
“I was thinking about John’s Gospel where it says that there’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And that was Kendrick,” he said.
In religion class, Haynes said Kendrick was pensive, hungry for the faith, and always eager to play Jesus whenever they acted out stories from the Bible.
“He always wanted to be Jesus,” Haynes said. In a video from her class that she posted to Facebook, Kendrick acts out the part of Jesus, going to search for his apostles or to comfort a suffering person, blessing them with the sign of the cross and inviting them to join him.
“I have this amazing scene where he found the two apostles and they’re all kneeling in front of the camera…Kendrick is peering at the camera and then he does the sign of the cross at everyone watching. And he was so serious in it,” Haynes said.
While religion can sometimes be a difficult subject to teach junior high kids, Haynes said that whole class “was really on a spiritual journey that I just got to witness. They really wanted the faith. And they weren’t afraid to ask the tough questions and to be stuck with some of the answers.”
Haynes credits Kendrick’s parents for raising him to be a kind and faithful young man, and she urged everyone to continue to pray for them for the rest of their lives.
Now a parent herself, Hayes said that while she hopes she never has to experience the tragedy of losing a child, she wants her two boys to grow up to be “just like Kendrick.”
Because of her faith and because of how he died, Haynes said she believes Kendrick “went straight to heaven.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt.”
Ottawa, Canada, May 9, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Pro-life campaigners from across Canada gathered on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill Thursday for the country’s annual National March for Life. Carrying a variety of handmade and pre-printed signs in a variety of languages, pro-life advocates, school groups, families, and clergy turned out to mark the fiftieth year of legal abortion in the country.
Police declined to give a formal estimate of the crowd, but participants told CNA that thousands of marchers were in attendence.
Addressing the crowd at a pre-march rally, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto referenced the changing nature of the pro-life movement in Canada as new laws have been passed over five decades.
Pointing to the spreading practice of euthanasia across the country, the cardinal said that it was paramount that “people recognize the reality, the profound preciousness of the gift of life from the first moment of conception until natural death.”
“In the past we’ve stressed so much–and rightly so–the first part of that,” the second clause regarding natural death is now more relevant than ever, explained Collins.
“The cold hand of euthanasia is upon our country as well.”
Last year, over 2,600 Canadians received “medical aid in dying,” effectively physician-administered homicide. This total amounts to 1.12 percent of all deaths in 2018.
In Canada, doctors opposed to euthanasia do not have the legal right to refuse such requests, and are subject to losing their jobs if they fail to comply.
“There must be protection for all people,” said Collins. “Not only those in the medical world, but for everyone.”
Other speakers at the event included Archbishop Christian Lepine of Montreal, Archbishop Terrence Prendergrast of Ottawa, and Member of Parliament David Anderson, who were joined by notable American pro-life figures in addressing the rally.
The crowd at the march appeared to contain a vast majority of younger attendees. Catholics were especially well represented, with church groups and the Knights of Columbus all prominently visible. The groups carried signs in French, English, and Spanish.
Two such young attendees, Julia Alphonso and Sarah Fernandes, traveled approximately five hours with a group from their school in Markham, Ontario to attend the National March for Life.
Alphonso told CNA that this was her third time marching, but it was Fernandes’ first.
“Pro-life in general is really important to me,” said Alphonso.
“Life, I believe, begins right from the moment of conception, and that’s really important.” She credited her faith, as well as the concept of natural law as for her convictions, and said that she was “really in support of this pro-life movement.”
Fernandes said that she had been influenced by her sister, who is active in a pro-life group at her college. She agreed with Alphonos that “life begins from conception (…) it should be protected.”
Fernandes said that she believes that while many people her age are pro-choice, their minds could be changed via the effective use of social media.
“Show them what an abortion looks like,” she said, and their position could shift.
Jenna Goldsack, also a first-time attendee of the National March for Life, told CNA that she was moved to the pro-life position after hearing stories from people who have lost children.
“Just knowing what happens through an abortion, I don’t agree with that,” she said. Goldsack told CNA that she thinks many young people like herself are pro-choice by default, and are simply conforming to what society expects of them.
A counter protest of about 50 people chanted throughout the speeches at the pre-march rally.
Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1969. The first-ever National March for Life in Ottawa was held in 1998.
Vatican City, May 9, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- The love of neighbor is a common commitment among Christians and Jews, Pope Francis said Tuesday, to teachers and students at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute.
The pope explained that Christian in… […]
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