Trenton, N.J., Feb 23, 2021 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- An alleged abuse victim who last year went public with allegations against the Bishop of Brooklyn has now filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey court, claiming that the bishop abused him repeatedly in the late 1… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- The nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary has been opposed by Democrats For Life of America, which has called for his nomination to be withdrawn… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 03:16 pm (CNA).- The world’s largest pregnancy help organization is preparing for its 50th annual training conference, with both virtual and in-person options.The Heartbeat International Conference will take place in Columbus,… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 23, 2021 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) on Tuesday announced its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of the top mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation.
Some entities on t… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Twitter has restored an Irish Catholic bishop’s post about assisted suicide following a review.
In the Jan. 31 tweet, Bishop Kevin Doran expressed opposition to efforts to legalize the practice in Irela… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- The theologian Beate Gilles was elected general secretary of the German bishops’ conference on Monday, becoming the first woman to hold the post.
She succeeds Fr. Hans Langendörfer, S.J., who… […]
Washington D.C., Feb 23, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).- President Biden’s nominee for health secretary on Tuesday would not commit to preventing federal funding of abortions, and would not say why he once opposed a partial-birth abortion ban.
Appearing before members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Tuesday, California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra would not answer why he voted against a partial-birth abortion ban in 2003, while a U.S. congressman.
If confirmed as health secretary, Becerra said he would try to find “common ground” with those whom he disagreed with on the issue.
“I think we can find some common ground on these issues, because everyone wants to make sure that, if you have an opportunity, you’re going to live a healthy life,” Becerra said in response to a question by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.); the senator had asked why Becerra, as a congressman, voted against a partial-birth abortion ban.
“I think we can reach common ground on many issues. But on partial-birth abortion, it sounds like we’re not going to reach common ground there,” Romney said in response.
Becerra, President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), also said on Tuesday that he would “follow the law” on federal funding of abortion, as health secretary.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) noted Becerra’s “very extreme” record on abortion, and asked him to commit “to not using taxpayer money to fund abortions and abortion providers.”
Becerra did not commit to that, but simply made a promise to “definitely follow the law when it comes to the use of federal resources,” and noted that “we probably will not agree on all the issues.”
Although the Hyde Amendment has traditionally banned the use of federal dollars for elective abortions, President Biden has supported the repeal of the policy, and the White House has not guaranteed that an upcoming COVID relief bill would not include abortion funding.
Other Democratic congressional leaders have also said they intend to not include the policy in appropriations bills this year; the Hyde Amendment is enacted each year as a rider to budget bills, specifying that the appropriations cannot be used for elective abortions.
Pro-life groups criticized Becerra for his answers on abortion.
His answer on partial-birth abortion should “disqualify” him from the position, tweeted Democrats for Life of America. “He is far too radical to run this department. There are better choices,” the group stated.
The pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List tweeted “Mr. Becerra, you’re applying for the top health job in the nation. You don’t get to make up imaginary terms like ‘future baby’.”
Other pro-life groups have criticized Becerra’s record on abortion, noting that as California attorney general, he prosecuted pro-life activist David Daleiden and enforced a state universal abortion coverage mandate; the mandate affected even Catholic religious, forcing them to provide abortion coverage for employees. Becerra also defended a state law that required crisis pregnancy centers to advertise for abortions.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights twice found Becerra and California in violation of federal conscience laws; when the office gave Becerra 30 days to comply with conscience laws back in Jan., 2020, Becerra refused. The agency eventually said it would withhold $200 million in Medicaid funds to California, as a result of the state’s violation of federal law.
When the Trump administration granted broad religious and moral exemptions to the HHS contraceptive mandate in 2017, Becerra sued; the lawsuit pushed the Little Sisters of the Poor to go back to court to defend their religious exemption to the mandate.
During the pandemic, Becerra pushed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to liberalize its regulations of the abortion pill regimen.
Becerra was asked on Tuesday about his efforts to push the FDA to allow for remote prescription of the abortion pill regimen during COVID.
In response to Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Becerra said that his letter to the FDA “was to make sure that all Americans had access to the care they needed without needing to worry about COVID becoming a danger.”
He led other state attorneys general in pushing for coverage of “gender-affirming treatment,” in October.
Rome Newsroom, Feb 23, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).- When Cardinal Fernando Filoni served as the papal nuncio in Iraq in the early 2000s, he remained in Baghdad amid bombings and suicide attacks.
In an interview with EWTN, the cardinal remembered the words … […]
Rome Newsroom, Feb 23, 2021 / 07:05 am (CNA).- Catholic leaders in Europe have urged the European Union to be guided by solidarity, fraternity, and social justice as it distributes and administers the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a joint statement Feb. 2… […]
CNA Staff, Feb 23, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has asked the new bishop of a divided Swiss diocese to remain in the post for at least five years, serving beyond the customary retirement age of 75.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, conveyed the pope’s request in a letter dated Feb. 15, the day that the Vatican announced Msgr. Joseph Bonnemain’s appointment as bishop of Chur in eastern Switzerland.
Normally, the 72-year-old bishop-elect would be expected to offer his resignation to the pope when he reaches his 75th birthday on July 26, 2023. But he will remain in post until at least 2026 if his health permits.
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that the Diocese of Chur announced the pope’s request on Feb. 22.
In his letter, addressed to Bonnemain, Ouellet indicated that the pope knew that there were serious divisions within the diocese, which dates back to 451 and today covers seven of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, including the canton of Zürich.
He wrote: “The Holy Father is aware of the complexity of the situation in the diocese. Your Excellency is called to promote, above all, the communion and unity of the local Church, and to work generously in the service of evangelization.”
“Aware of the demanding dimensions of the mission entrusted to you, and considering your age, Pope Francis has decreed that, should your health permit, your mandate should last at least five years.”
Pope Francis stepped in last week to end the deadlock over the appointment of a new bishop in the diocese, which traditionally holds episcopal elections.
The see became vacant when Bishop Vitus Huonder retired on May 20, 2019, at the age of 77.
Local media reported last November that Chur’s cathedral chapter had rejected all three candidates to succeed Huonder proposed by the pope.
The 22 members of the cathedral chapter were due to elect a successor on Nov. 23. The list of candidates was supposed to remain secret, but local media reported that the three people proposed for the vacant see were Bonnemain, Abbot Vigeli Monn von Disentis, and Abbot Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori.
CNA Deutsch said at the time that the cathedral chapter saw the list of three candidates as an “attempt at interference” by neighboring dioceses. It quoted an insider as saying that the three names indicated that “the voice of the Diocese of Chur, which has previously deviated from the social mainstream, is being silenced” — a reference to the diocese’s reputation as a bastion of conservative Catholicism.
Pope Pius XII established the current rules for the selection of bishops in the diocese in the 1948 decree “Etsi salva,” giving the cathedral chapter the privilege of electing a bishop from among three priests proposed by the Holy See.
When the cathedral chapter is unable to choose a bishop, the pope is free to appoint the new bishop directly. Pope Francis did so, selecting Bonnemain, a member of Opus Dei who previously served as judicial vicar and canon of the cathedral chapter of Chur diocese.
Preaching at Mass in Chur Cathedral on Feb. 15, Bonnemain announced that he would not be adopting an episcopal coat of arms.
He said: “The cross is the sign of Christ’s loving devotion to the world. Therefore, do not expect me to design and use a bishop’s coat of arms, which is usually the case. The sign of the cross of Christ is enough for me. And this, only this, I will use.”
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