CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 08:17 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco applauded the Marin County District Attorney for filing charges over the vandalism of a statue depicting St. Junipero Serra at Mission San Rafael last month.
&… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- The governor of Delaware has settled a federal lawsuit over church-related COVID-19 restrictions, which he had imposed at the start of the pandemic in March.
In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, Governor Joh… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 03:23 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Italian Bishops Conference, has slightly improved and was moved out of the ICU, but remains in critical condition since contracting COVID-19, his auxiliary bishop said on Friday afternoon.
“We welcome the news that our Cardinal Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti has left the intensive care unit” at the hospital of Santa Maria della Misericordia,” said Auxiliary Bishop Marco Salvi of Perugia, in northern Italy. However, he warned that the cardinal’s condition “is still serious and requires a chorus of prayers.”
Earlier on Friday, the hospital’s daily bulletin reported a “slight improvement” on Bassetti’s condition, but warned that the “clinical picture remains serious and the cardinal needs constant monitoring and appropriate care.”
The 78-year-old Archbishop of Perugia, chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Italian Bishops’ Conference in May 2017, was diagnosed with Covid-19 on October 28th and was hospitalized on November 3 in very serious condition. He was placed in “Intensive Care 2” in the Perugia hospital.
After his condition worsened, on November 10, Pope Francis called Bishop Salvi, who has also contracted COVID19 but remains asymptomatic, to ask about the cardinal’s condition and offer his prayers.
Despite the slight improvement and the fact that the cardinal is awake and aware, “it is necessary to continue incessantly in prayer for our shepherd, for all the sick and for the health workers who take care of them,” Salvi said. “To these we give our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for what they do every day in alleviating the suffering of so many patients.”
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has spoken of his concern that religious liberty is under threat in the United States. The justice spoke out on Thursday about a range of issues which, he said, were challenging basic legal freedoms in the country.
The justice warned that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic was acting as a “stress test” for Constitutional liberties, and that religious liberty as an emerging “disfavored” and “second tier” right.
Alito made the comments on Nov. 13, in a Zoom presentation to the Federalist Society’s annual conference. The Federalist Society’s website describes the group as “an organization of 60,000 lawyers, law students, scholars, and other individuals who believe and trust that individual citizens can make the best choices for themselves and society.”
Alito has been a member of the Federalist Society for many years, and has previously addressed its conferences.
“The pandemic has obviously taken a heavy human toll,” said Alito. “Thousands dead, many more hospitalized, millions unemployed, the dreams of many small business owners dashed. But what has it meant for the rule of law?”
Alito went on to say that his sentiments would likely be “twisted or misunderstood,” but that he believed the pandemic has had a clear impact on liberty.
“The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” said Alito.
The justice said that he was not offering a commentary on the severity of the coronavirus, and he was not suggesting that all the restrictions taken to control the spread of the virus were necessarily illegal or bad public policy.
But, he said, “we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.”
Alito specifically mentioned the closure of churches on Easter Sunday, and the closure of synagogues during the Jewish holidays of Passover and Yom Kippur, and the delays of many federal court trials.
“The covid crisis has served as kind of a Constitutional ‘stress test’ and in doing so, it has highlighted disturbing trends that were already present before the virus struck,” said Alito.
He raised concerns that the pandemic has sparked a “executive fiat” in terms of lawmaking.
“Just as the COVID restrictions have highlighted the movement toward rule by experts, litigation about those restrictions has pointed out emerging trends in the assessment of individual rights.”
“This is especially evident with respect to religious liberty,” said Alito. “It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”
Alito said this is a “surprising turn of events,” noting that in the 1990s, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was a bipartisan piece of legislation that easily was voted into law. Today, he said, “when states have considered or gone ahead and adopted their own versions of RiFRA, they have been threatened with punishing economic boycotts.”
Alito said that the cases the court hears today follow the “same trend” of eroding religious liberty.
Specifically, Alito cited the “unrelenting attack” on the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic religious order that operates nursing homes for the elderly poor. The Little Sisters of the Poor have made several trips to the Supreme Court after they refused to provide contraception and abortifacient drugs in their insurance plans, and have won each time.
“For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom,” said Alito. “It’s often just an excuse for bigotry, and it can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed.” He said there was no evidence that any of the employees working for the Little Sisters of the Poor had ever sought to receive contraception under their insurance plan.
Alito was critical of states that have restricted access to worship services under the guise of coronavirus safety protocols, but had allowed other gatherings to continue without issue.
In July, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case Calvary Chapel v. Sisolak, which argued that Nevada was discriminating against houses of worship by restricting capacity to 50 people. Casinos, however, were allowed 50% capacity. Alito voted to hear the case.
“Now, deciding whether to allow this disparate treatment should not have been a very tough call,” said Alito. “Take a quick look at the Constitution. You will see the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty. You will not find a craps clause or a blackjack clause or a slot machine clause.”
“Nevada was unable to provide any plausible justification for treating casinos more favorably than houses of worship,” he said. “But the court nevertheless deferred to the governor’s judgment, which just so happened to favor the state’s biggest industry and the many voters it employs.”
Alito raised concerns that freedom of speech was on its way to becoming a “second-tier Constitutional right,” and said that the court would be facing the “great challenge” in the future to protect freedom of speech.
“You can’t say that marriage is the union between one man and one woman. Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought,” said Alito. “Now it’s considered bigotry.”
“That this would happen after our decision in Obergefell should not have come as a surprise,” he said. While the majority opinion “included words meant to calm the fears of those who cling to traditional views on marriage,” he said that he foresaw that the decision would erode freedom of speech protections.
Alito quoted his dissent in Obergefell, where he wrote “I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes. But if they repeat those of us in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots, and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools.”
“That is just what is coming to pass,” he said.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Catholic bishops in Massachusetts are fighting a state measure to expand legal abortion.
An amendment adopted by the state house on Thursday would allow for abortions in certain circumstances throughout pregnancy, a move the state’s Catholic Conference has said goes “well beyond what is enshrined in state law.”
The amendment to a larger budget bill was adopted by the state house on Thursday by a 108-49 vote, State House News Service reported. A dozen Democrats voted against the amendment, while one Republican voted for it.
Under House amendment 759, abortions can be performed after 24 weeks in the case of a lethal fetal anomaly.
In addition, 16 and 17 year-old girls could also have an abortion without parental consent.
Minors under the age of 16 can obtain a judicial bypass waiver to get an abortion without parental consent. A waiver could be granted via teleconference, according to the bill’s sponsor, State House News Service reported.
“The Catholic Church teaches that life itself starts at conception and ends with natural death,” the Massachusetts Catholic Conference stated on Nov. 11 in opposition to the amendment.
Three bishops in the state issued the joint statement—Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, and Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV, of Fall River.
Of the changes to the parental consent law, the bishops said that under the amendment, “a 16 or 17 year old girl would be deprived of the guidance and support of an adult at the time of making this life changing decision.”
The measure does require “life-saving equipment” to be present in the room when an abortion is performed past 24 weeks, but the bishops say that the amendment’s language “is nuanced enough that the physician would not be required to use the equipment” if a baby survived an abortion attempt.
Legislators introduced similar legislation, the “Roe Act,” in 2019 to act as a “trigger law” in the event that Roe v. Wade would be overturned by the Supreme Court. “Trigger laws” either legalize abortions in a state or restrict them, in the event that Roe is overturned and states once again have the authority to ban or allow abortions.
“While we acknowledge the amendment addresses some concerns that were raised about the deeply troubling provisions of the Roe legislation, the fact remains that abortion would remain an option under certain circumstances for the full term of the pregnancy,” the bishops stated.
“That fact alone is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching and must be opposed.”
Once the state senate passes a budget, the senate and house bills will be reconciled in a conference committee, which produces a final report for a final vote by the legislative chambers. Then the final bill is sent to the governor for signature.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones criticized the procedure for using the budget process to pass an abortion amendment.
“I don’t care what side of the issue you’re on, this being done as part of the budget process in a lame duck session, under the cover of darkness, in the midst of a pandemic is wrong,” Jones said, as reported by State House News Service.
Rome Newsroom, Nov 13, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The Chinese government’s latest five-year plan proposal contains a birth policy with an emphasis on eugenics, a China scholar said this week.
China, known for its decades-long one-child policy, is n… […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2020 / 09:40 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Brooklyn is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in its case against New York’s COVID restrictions on churches.
On Thursday, the diocese asked the Supreme Court for relief from the state of New York’s COVID rule limiting attendance at some diocesan churches to just 10 people while allowing some businesses to remain open without capacity limits.
In a statement provided to CNA on Friday, the diocese said it is “committed to reopening our churches, safely, and to vindicate our First Amendment rights.”
“We are confident we will prevail for the good of our churches and those of faith who want to operate safely yet continue to suffer under the Governor’s express restrictions on ‘houses of worship,’” the diocese stated.
In October, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order curbing some public gatherings in certain localities, due to the reported rapid spread of the coronavirus in those districts.
His order limited some houses of worship to hold indoor services at just 25% capacity or 10 people—whichever number was smaller—effectively limiting Mass attendance to just one priest and nine parishioners.
Cuomo’s original order recognized certain geographic zones where the virus was spreading, and labeled them by color—red for the districts with the worst outbreaks of the virus, followed by orange zones with less serious outbreaks, and then yellow zones.
In the “red” zones, indoor religious services were effectively limited to just 10 people; in the “orange” zones, that limit was 25 people or 33% capacity, whichever number was smaller; churches in “yellow” zones were allowed to operate at 50% capacity.
The Brooklyn diocese sued over the restrictions, claiming that it had set up safety measures at churches that were being faithfully followed, and that there had been no known transmission of the virus traced to indoor Masses.
“It has been our contention that Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens have been penalized by a broad-brush approach when we are not the cause of the spreading of the contagion,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio wrote in a Nov. 11 column in the diocesan newspaper The Tablet.
Both a federal district court and an appeals court ruled against the diocese, which has now appealed its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The diocese argued in its appeal that Cuomo’s order allows “numerous secular businesses to operate without any capacity restrictions” while subjecting churches to the attendance limits.
For instance, businesses deemed “essential” by the state—and thus not subject to capacity limits in the “red” zones—included “supermarkets and grocery stores, hardware stores, convenience stores, pet food stores, banks, brokers’ offices, and accounting firms,” the diocese stated in its complaint.
In the “orange” zones, “even the vast majority of businesses designated ‘non-essential’ can open without capacity restrictions,” the diocese said, while churches are subject to either 33% or 25-person capacity limits.
The “orange” zones have since been “eliminated,” DiMarzio wrote in his column. Yet some churches subject to the strictest “red” zone rules “are literally across the street from the ‘yellow’ zones where 50 percent occupancy is allowed.”
As of Nov. 8, the diocese tweeted that five churches once located in a “red zone” are no longer in one, and have since reopened for Mass after being closed for four weeks.
“The government has a right and duty to protect the health of citizens, but this duty cannot be so broad that the right to freely exercise one’s faith is extinguished,” DiMarzio wrote in his column.
The diocese needs to fight in court, he argued, in order to prevent possible future infringements on religious freedom.
“The issue of religious freedom is one that must be on our radar because, in the future, we might see further attempts to redefine the meaning of religious freedom and relegate us not just to be inside of our churches, but even dictating the number of people who are allowed to enter our churches,” he wrote.
CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 07:37 am (CNA).- The organizers of World Youth Day 2023 invited young Portuguese Catholics this week to prepare for the event by taking part in a two-day nationwide mission.
They urged youngsters to join a “a great nati… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 03:20 am (CNA).- The McCarrick Report showed that St. John Paul II was deceived about the disgraced ex-cardinal, the president of the Polish bishops’ conference said Friday.
In a Nov. 13 statement, Archbishop Stanisław … […]
CNA Staff, Nov 13, 2020 / 12:17 am (CNA).- Catholic author George Weigel this week praised the heroic witness displayed by members of Courage, an apostolate that ministers to people experiencing same-sex attraction.
He encouraged them to stand firm amid societal pressures and recent controversy over comments from Pope Francis regarding same-sex civil unions.
“Brave men and women of ‘Courage,’ thank you for your witness. Please continue to take up the challenge that St. John Paul II issued on October 22, 1978: ‘Be not afraid! Open the doors to Christ!’” Weigel wrote in a Nov. 11 open letter published at First Things.
Courage offers resources to people experiencing same-sex attraction to help them live chaste lives according to Church teaching. Founded in 1980, the group today has more than 150 chapters in 18 countries.
“Your courage should inspire every Catholic to a similar fidelity, and to the mutual, prayerful support that helps sustain the integrity of love,” Weigel continued.
Weigel, who wrote the definitive biography of Pope St. John Paul II in 1999, noted that the “licentious” current culture can make living a chaste life difficult for anyone.
“Against fierce cultural and social pressures, you strive—with the help of grace, your pastors, and each other—to live the Catholic ethic of human love even as you experience same-sex attractions. Your efforts at fidelity bespeak deep faith, a powerful hope, and authentic love,” Weigel wrote.
Weigel’s letter was prompted by a recent controversy over a documentary film, “Francesco,” which features interviews with Pope Francis and includes a brief section in which, during a discussion of pastoral care of Catholics who identify as LGBT, the pope appears to offer support for civil union laws for same-sex couples.
The Vatican has since clarified that the pope’s comments do not pertain to Catholic doctrine regarding the nature of marriage, but to provisions of civil law in the specific context of a 2010 same-sex marriage bill in the Argentine legislature, which Pope Francis, who was then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, opposed. He had proposed the idea of civil unions as a compromise to avoid the legal redefinition of marriage.
Nevertheless, the pope’s remarks garnered praise from some Catholics who wish to see a change in the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage, even though Pope Francis has frequently affirmed the doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church that marriage is a lifelong partnership between one man and one woman.
Describing the pope’s comments as “cut-and-pasted by an agenda-driven filmmaker,” Weigel noted that informal remarks by a pope to a filmmaker do not constitute an expression of the papal teaching office.
Moreover, he noted that the Church’s teaching on what constitutes marriage “cannot change, because it is rooted in divine revelation and attested by reason.”
Weigel’s remarks echo those of Father Philip Bochanski, Courage’s director, who wrote a letter to the people of Courage on Oct. 22 in response to the pope’s remarks.
“[The] truth — that God has established a unique context for the total gift of self that is reflected in sexual intimacy — is rooted in the nature of the human person, in the revealed Word of God, and in the consistent teaching of the Church,” Bochanski wrote.
“That sexual relations are only morally good in the context of a permanent, faithful marriage between a man and a woman whose relations are open to having children is a teaching that cannot and will not be changed by anyone.”
Bochanski cited a 2003 document approved by Pope John Paul II and written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith taught that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”
Even if civil unions might be chosen by people other than same-sex couples, like siblings or committed friends, the CDF said that homosexual relationships would be “foreseen and approved by the law,” and that civil unions “would obscure certain basic moral values and cause a devaluation of the institution of marriage.”
Bochanski noted that Pope Francis began his remarks in the video by insisting that people who experience same-sex attractions must never be rejected or excluded by their own families, which is consistent with the Church’s teaching that people who experience same-sex attraction must be “accepted with respect and sensitivity.”
“You members of Courage who make so many sacrifices as you strive for chastity, prayerful fellowship, and authentic friendship are a heroic witness to the world that a person doesn’t need to be in a sexual relationship in order to give and receive love that is sincere, loyal and fulfilling,” Bochanski wrote.
“I know that the media chatter over the last few days has left you feeling anxious, unseen and even rejected, but nothing could be farther from the reality. The teaching of the Church on these important matters is embodied and made clear in your daily lives. The Pope’s remarks about loving and protecting our brothers and sisters who experience same-sex attractions don’t detract from your sacrificial, heroic witness — they depend on it!”
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