CNA Staff, Nov 4, 2020 / 08:15 am (CNA).- Republicans looked on track Wednesday morning to keep control of the Senate, offsetting a loss in Colorado with a gain in Alabama. The upper chamber is set to consider several key bills on abortion funding and … […]
Vatican City, Nov 4, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that the Vatican Museums will close until Dec. 3 as Italy implements further coronavirus restrictions.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree to close al… […]
Vatican City, Nov 4, 2020 / 04:10 am (CNA).- Jesus teaches us that we must be consistent in our prayer, Pope Francis said at the general audience Wednesday.
Speaking in the library of the Apostolic Palace Nov. 4, the pope described prayer as an &ldquo… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 11:10 pm (CNA).-
Late into election night, well after midnight in Washington, DC, here are 5 things you need to know:
— There is not yet a winner in the presidential election, and it might be a while.
Shortly after midnight on election night, both President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden had won states key to their election. Trump won swing states Florida and Ohio, and was expected to win North Carolina. Biden was expected to win Arizona, which Trump won in 2016.
Trump led in Georgia, and in swing states Wisconsin and Michigan, but there were still votes to count, and no winner was expected to be announced until Tuesday. Trump led by more than 15 points in Pennsylvania, but urban areas, expected to go toward Biden, had not yet been fully counted. State officials said it could be days until a winner was declared, because mail-in votes still needed to be tallied.
The race is expected to come down to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. If Pennsylvania is the final piece of either candidate’s path to 270 electoral votes, it could be days before the election was decided, and some expect that litigation could become an issue.
— Louisiana passed a pro-life state constitutional amendment.
Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment to prevent the state’s courts from finding a “right to abortion,” or to public abortion funding, in the state’s constitution.
More than 60% of Louisiana’s voters voted to amend the state constitution to say that “nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
“Amendment 1 is not a ban on abortion. It simply keeps abortion policy in the hands of our legislators rather than state judges,” state Senator Katrina Jackson, who authored the amendment, explained.
— Colorado voters did not approve a late term abortion ban.
Colorado voters considered a ban on abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy. The state is one of just seven that allows abortion to take place until birth. Each year, about 200 to 300 babies are aborted after 21-weeks gestation in the state.
While pro-life advocates urged support for a ban on late-term abortion, nearly 60% of voters rejected the proposal.
— Democrats were projected to retain control of the House of Representatives.
Late Tuesday night, Democrats were projected to retain control of the House of Representatives. Democrats have pledged to push for federal funding of abortion if they retained control of the House after the 2020 election.
— As election day began, the U.S. bishops urged prayer.
On this #ElectionDay, we pray for discernment so that we may choose leaders who hear God’s Word, live His love, and keep in the ways of His truth. Pray the full prayer here: https://t.co/iLAsoUeqNr #2020Elections pic.twitter.com/4pu21J1gF7
— U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) November 3, 2020
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 11:06 pm (CNA).- Control of the White House and Senate remained unresolved on Election Night, with Pennsylvania expected to take days to certify a result in the presidential contest, and a run-off set to be held in Georgia&rsqu… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 10:10 pm (CNA).-
Voters in Washington approved a ballot measure that will require “comprehensive sex education” in public schools. Washington’s Catholic bishops opposed the measure.
Nearly 60% of Washington voters approved the measure.
The Catholic bishops in Washington said the measure promoted an educational program detrimental to young people, and contrary to the truths of human dignity, human sexuality, and parental formation of children.
The proposal “does not adequately address complex moral issues tied to human sexuality nor properly discuss sex in the context of marriage,” the Washington State Catholic Conference said. Its requirements on teaching consent, for instance, do not address the idea that sexual activity should take place only between married spouses.
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has said public school districts would be able to choose from a variety of full sex ed curricula and supplemental curricula for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and high schoolers, respectively. According to Seattle Weekly, the office said that grades K-3 curricula focus on social-emotional learning.
The state superintendent’s office said it is appropriate for fourth-graders to learn how to define sexual orientation and gender identity. Later grades would learn about healthy relationships, consent, developmental growth, the functions of reproductive systems, how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs. They are also supposed to understand the influences of family, peers, community and the media on healthy sexual relationships.
But Washington’s bishops disagreed.
The state’s Catholic conference argued that “locally elected school boards cannot fully determine their own policy in this sensitive area.” It explained that although school districts are permitted to create their own curriculum based on the state’s 2005 health standards, the sex education mandate is not funded and so school districts are more likely to rely on the existing state curriculum than to create their own without funds.
The Catholic conference warned that such sex education can have an effect on the school’s general atmosphere.
“Parents can opt their children out of classroom instruction, but they cannot opt them out of schoolyard discussions and the culture change that may take place at school as the result of (comprehensive sexual health education),” it warned.
The bishops cited the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, which stressed the need to safeguard the right of parents to “educate their children in the bosom of the family.”
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 09:47 pm (CNA).- Voters in Colorado rejected a ballot measure that would have banned abortion in the state after 22 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases where a mother’s life is threatened.
Proposition 115 failed 59%-41%, with 81.5% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.
If the ballot measure had passed, doctors would have faced a three-year license suspension for performing or attempting to perform an abortion of an unborn child beyond 22 weeks of gestation. Women would not have been charged for seeking or obtaining an illegal abortion.
Colorado has no laws regulating late-term abortion, making it one of just seven states in the country where abortions can take place up until birth. Each year, about 200 to 300 babies are aborted after 21-weeks gestation in the state.
More than 150,000 Coloradans signed a petition to put Proposition 115 on the ballot. Kristen Day, president of the Democrats for Life of America, told CNA that 19,000 Democrats signed the petition.
“Even Democrats oppose late-term abortion. 82% of Democrats and 77% of independents and 94% of Republicans oppose third trimester abortions,” she said. “It’s a very mainstream position.”
Opponents of the measure had a significant cash advantage in the weeks before the election.
As of mid-October, about $276,000 in monetary and other contributions have gone to groups supporting the proposition, according to records from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver was the largest donor, giving about $50,000 to support the campaign, followed by several donors who have given $10,000 to $12,000 apiece.
Foes of the measure had given over $5.7 million in cash and other contributions, mainly to the group Abortion Access for All. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains had given over $1.15 million, the D.C.-based North Fund had given $1 million, and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund had given over $500,000. Cobalt Advocates, formerly known as NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, had given over $438,000 and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America had given $400,000.
More than 130 medical professionals and scientists in Colorado signed a letter in support of Proposition 115, stressing that babies born at 22 weeks are often able to survive, with some medical centers in the U.S. having a 70% survival rate for premature babies born at this age.
“With advances in medical science, it has become obvious that the fetus is much more than ‘just pregnancy tissue’, as some would claim. There can be no equivocation that the fetus is a living, learning and actively participating human being,” the signers of the letter said. “Every one of these lives has inherent value and dignity. They deserve to be embraced and protected by the citizens of Colorado, as equal members of our society.”
The Catholic bishops of Colorado spoke out repeatedly in favor of the ballot measure.
In a September 27 letter, Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Bishop Jorge Rodriguez called on Hispanics in the Archdiocese of Denver to uphold the values of life, children, and family that are so prominent in their culture.
“Let us not allow propaganda, social media and the promoters of the Culture of Death destroy that richness of our faith and our Hispanic tradition: We are and will be a people for Life,” the bishops said.
“Rest assured that your ‘Yes’ to Proposition 115 will have innumerable consequences for the lives of many children who, within their mother’s womb, count on you for life,” they said.
Praying outside a late-term abortion clinic in Boulder in September, Archbishop Aquila emphasized the importance of the pro-life community offering resources and support as alternatives to abortion-minded women.
He said he hopes the Church can show women facing difficult pregnancies “that there are many other options, and that there are people who will walk with them, who will accompany them, who will help them to carry the child to term and well beyond.”
In 1984, Colorado voters passed a constitutional amendment banning public funding of abortions except to prevent the death of the mother. In 1998, they passed an initiative requiring parental consent and a waiting period for minors who seek abortions.
Other abortion-related measures have not succeeded in the state. The 2008 and 2010 Colorado ballots included two slightly different personhood initiatives, which tried to define a person under state law to include every human being from the moment of fertilization or “from the beginning of biological development,” respectively. The 2008 proposal won under 27% approval from voters, while the 2010 proposal received under 30% of votes.
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 09:05 pm (CNA).- Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives, NBC News and Bloomberg projected late Tuesday night. Democrats have pledged to push for federal funding of abortion if they retained control of the… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 08:47 pm (CNA).-
Louisiana voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment, authored by a pro-life Democrat, to prevent Louisiana’s courts from finding a “right to abortion,” or to public abortio… […]
CNA Staff, Nov 3, 2020 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- Demonstrators this weekend protested the Vatican-ordered closure of Mary Mother of God Seminary in San Rafael, Argentina.
Protestors gathered Saturday and Sunday outside the diocesan offices, in San Martín Plaza and in front of the city’s cathedral. The protestors prayed the rosary and held signs calling for the diocesan seminary not to be closed.
Signs held by the demonstrators included messages such as “We’re not confused, we’re outraged,” “Enough of the threats, Bishop”; “For the sake of our seminarians, explain the real reason,” “We ask for an Apostolic Commissioner,” and “Holy Father, give us back the seminary and the seminarians.”
Car caravans with similar messages also drove through the city, ending at the diocesan offices.
San Rafael’s Bishop Eduardo Taussig announced in July that the diocesan Mary Mother of God Seminary would be closed by the end of 2020, by order of the Vatican, and that the seminarians would be relocated to other Argentine seminaries.
In August, the bishop said that the Congregation for the Clergy informed him that because the seminary had trouble maintaining a rector–having had seven in the past 15 years–it did not seem worth it to keep the seminary open.
That announcement came amid escalating tensions in the diocese between the bishop and a group of lay Catholics and priests, which began in mid-June, when Taussig announced that Holy Communion in the diocese could only be received standing and in the hand, not directly on the tongue while kneeling, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The bishop’s directive, consistent with norms announced in other dioceses in the region, may have also created tensions within the diocesan seminary itself.
A large number of the priests in San Rafael have not complied with directives regarding the distribution of communion in the hand, among them many former students of the seminary, which has been perceived by some to be behind the priests’ reluctance to require communion in the hand, the bishop said.
This refusal to comply had caused “serious scandal inside and outside the seminary and diocese,” said Taussig.
Taussig said that reception of the Eucharist in the hand or on the tongue are both equally accepted by the Church.
Speaking to TVA El Nevado on July 27, Fr. José Antonio Álvarez, spokesman for the Diocese of San Rafael, said that “due to the undisciplined reaction of a good part of the clergy of the diocese at this time, this diocese does not have the possibility of putting together a formation team in conformity with the discipline of the Church.”
On August 20, Mgr. Taussig announced that he would impose canonical sanctions on priests who persisted in disobedience by giving Communion on the tongue and not in the hand.
After meeting with Pope Francis in late October, Taussig said that the Vatican’s decision to close the seminary “was not up for discussion” and will take effect later this year.
Catholics have repeatedly spoken out against the closure of the seminary, calling for caravans, prayer and demonstrations outside the San Rafael diocesan headquarters.
In response to protests last month, Taussig published a letter October 30, asking Catholics not to “come together for these anonymous gatherings,” as “they aggravate the situation and may harm the seminarians themselves more, whom we all want to care for.”
The bishop called previous demonstrations “acts of rebellion and contention.” Messages stuck to walls and doors included a sign calling for the bishop to resign, another called him a traitor.
Taussig said that the demonstrations “first of all harm the seminary itself. The laity who put up insulting posters, who brought their children along and allowed them to pound on the windows and doors, who harm the unity of the Church and scandalize its members (and non-members looking on with surprise from the outside), are seen as ‘fruits of the seminary’. Because they reflect, at least indirectly, the formation received from those who have also graduated from the seminary. The announced caravans will also be judged in the same way.”
A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
© Catholic World Report