News Briefs

Washington D.C., Mar 2, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Catholics attending Mass at the Conservative Political Action Conference convention, held outside Washington, DC, this weekend, told CNA their decision to support President Donald Trump’s bid for reelection is mostly because of his administration’s record on abortion. 

CNA spoke to several people who attended one of the daily Masses offered during the event Feb. 26-29. 

Several said they could not consider voting for Democratic candidates because of the party’s absolute support for abortion, even while some acknowledged that Trump himself once supported legal protection for abortion.

Javier Martin, an immigrant from Spain who now lives in New York, told CNA after Mass that while he does not agree with Trump on everything, the president’s policies align most closely with his own views, as compared to the other candidates running. 

“Policy wise, it’s much harder to vote for Democrats right now, if you felt the pro-life issue is imoprtant to you,” said Martin. “That’s just a non-starter on the Democrat’s side right now.” 

Martin said that he thinks that “Trump seems to be going in a better direction” than what other candidates are proposing. 

The annual CPAC conference is considered by many to be a reflection of the trends and topics of importance in populist conservative circles. While Trump was considered an outsider at the conference in the years before his presidential candidacy, the 2020 event had many of the trappings of a Trump campaign rally.  

Grace Dwyer and Lauren Pels are Catholic students who attended CPAC this year. They are both 17 and will be voting in their first presidential election this November. Both young women told CNA they plan to vote for Trump. 

Dwyer, who lives in the Washington area, told CNA that she was galvanized by seeing Trump speak at the 2020 March for Life, saying she found the event “really amazing.” 

“I’ve been [to the March for Life] every year since I was two, and just having the president there this year was amazing,” she said. 

Dwyer also appreciated hearing Vice President Mike Pence speak at the CPAC conference, especially, she said, because he stressed the Republican Party’s commitment to pro-life values, and invited disillusioned pro-life Democrats to join the Republican Party.

Being pro-life has “always been something big for me,” Dwyer explained. 

Pels agreed with Dwyer, and she said that she, too, plans to vote for Trump because of his pro-life record.

“A big thing for me is that President Trump is pro-life, especially with how far the left has moved on abortion,” said Pels, citing recent congressional debates over the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill that would require medical care be given to a child who survives an abortion. 

Pels also said she approves of how Trump had “stopped giving aid to fund abortions in other countries,” referring to the president’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy. 

Pels acknowledged that while “some of [Trump’s] past comments have been problematic and conflicted with Catholic beliefs,” she said his actions as president have outweighed his past statements and behavior, “especially when you look at what the actions of the left would have been, which are absolutely egregious,” Pels said. 

Another Mass attendee at CPAC cited the president’s pro-life views as the reason she will be voting for him in November.

Bernadette Repisky spoke to CNA after Mass at the conference on Thursday evening. Repinsky traveled to CPAC from the Philadelphia area, and she previously attended the conferences in 2012 and 2016. 

Repinksy told CNA that she “loves” Trump because of his pro-life views, and that she believes that “he’s doing more for my country than any president has ever done in my lifetime, and I’m in my fifties.”

Trump had previously supported the right to an abortion, something Repinksy said does not bother her. She also offered her view on criticisms of the president’s moral character, which include allegations of sexual assault and harassment. 

“So he might’ve been a Democrat in his former life, might’ve been a playboy in his former life, but I don’t judge him by that,” she told CNA. “That’s for God. I judge him by what he’s doing right now and what he says he’s going to do for us and for this country.” 

“I stand behind him one hundred percent.”

While every Catholic CNA spoke with at CPAC indicated plans to vote for Trump, even with reservations, nationwide polling shows that the Catholic vote in November is likely to be far more diverse. 

In the recent EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll, 46% of Catholics said that there was a “sure” or “good” chance they would vote for Trump, and an additional 8% of respondents said it was “possible” they would vote for the president. Slightly more than a third–36%–said they would “never” vote for Trump. 

Fifty percent of Catholics surveyed by the poll said they would consider voting for a third party candidate.

This was the first year that daily Mass was celebrated at the conference, held at National Harbor outside of Washington, D.C., with priests volunteering from nearby parishes. 

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC, told CNA that the decision to include daily Mass at the event came in response to widespread support for a vigil Mass celebrated on the final day of the conference last year. 

“There’s so many kids who are here from schools, and CPAC ends on a Saturday, and then most of them then get on airplane Sunday morning,” Schlapp told CNA. “And so we started with a vigil Mass last year and I got so much great feedback. I had people stop me in airports and train stations saying, thank you for doing Mass on Saturday night.”

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St. Paul, Minn., Mar 2, 2020 / 03:52 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Minnesota have published guidelines regarding gender identity and Catholic schools, emphasizing the Catholic mission of schools and the Church’s doctrinal teaching on sexuali… […]

Detroit, Mich., Mar 2, 2020 / 02:06 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Detroit announced Sunday that Pope Francis has granted the title of minor basilica to Ste. Anne Church in Detroit, one of the longest continuously operating parishes in the country.

“At its founding on the Feast of St. Anne in 1701, this parish was among the first fruits of a new missionary diocese,” Archbishop Allen Vigneron said March 1.

“I consider this designation as a basilica to be a providential reminder that today, we each are called to continue this same mission to unleash the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the men and women of our time.”

The title of minor basilica is an honor bestowed by the pope to signify a church of “particular importance for liturgical and pastoral life,” and signify a “particular link” with Rome and the pope, according to the norms laid out in the Congregation for Divine Worship’s 1989 document Domus Ecclesiae.

The United States is now home to 86 minor basilicas. Around 1,700 churches are designated as such worldwide; there exist only four major basilicas, all of which are located in Rome.

The parish submitted its application to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments during July 2018. Conditions for obtaining the title include the church’s status as “a center of active and pastoral liturgy;” “a certain renown throughout the diocese;” and “historical value or importance of the church and the worthiness of its art.”

St. Anne is the patroness of Detroit. Archbishop Vigneron in 2017 designated a side altar of the church, which includes a first-class relic of St. Anne, as an archdiocesan shrine. A symbol of St. Ann appears on the archdiocesan coat of arms.

French missionaries founded the parish in 1701, just two days after a party of French explorers established the city of Detroit.

The current building, which is the eighth in the parish’s history, dates to 1887 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

According to Detroit Catholic, the parish is the one of the oldest in the United States.

The parish is known for an annual novena to St. Anne that has been going for more than 100 years. It is also a participant in Matthew Kelly’s “Dynamic Parish” program.

Ste. Anne is the first basilica elevated in Michigan since 2015, when Pope Francis elevated the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. St. Adalbert in Grand Rapids received the title in 1980.

Ste. Anne is in need of an extensive renovation that includes a new roof, work on the exterior walls and foundation and a new HVAC system and furnace.

According to Detroit Catholic, Ste. Anne’s pastor has estimated the renovations could cost upwards of $20 million.

Vigneron will celebrate the designation with a Mass April 26. After its designation, the church will exhibit the papal symbol of “crossed keys” and its pastor will enjoy the title of rector.

The faithful who devoutly visit the basilica and within it participate in any sacred rite or at least recite the Lord’s Prayer and the profession of faith may, under the usual conditions, obtain a plenary indulgence on certain days of the year.

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