News Briefs

Democrats for Life Executive Director Kristen Day. / Credit: EWTN News Nightly/Screenshot

Chicago, Ill., Aug 21, 2024 / 18:40 pm (CNA).
Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, denounced the presence of Planned&nbs… […]

Eileen O’Connor. Public domain. / null

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

An Australian archbishop sent Servant of God Eileen O’Connor’s cause for sainthood to Rome on Monday in an important step on the road to leading to the possible declaration of Australia’s second saint.

O’Connor, who at the age of three suffered from a debilitating spinal injury, accomplished much during her 28 years of life, founding the Our Lady’s Nurses of the Poor, known as the “Brown Sisters” for their brown habits. The congregation was dedicated to care for the impoverished who were sick.  

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney signed a final decree on Aug. 16 and sent documents detailing evidence for O’Connor’s cause to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome on Monday, according to the archdiocesan paper The Catholic Weekly. Her cause for sainthood first opened in February 2020.

O’Connor would be Australia’s second saint, following St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop, who was canonized in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI.  

Eileen O’Connor was born in Melbourne in 1892, the eldest of four children, to devout Irish Catholic parents.

Due to a curvature of the spine, O’Connor was three foot nine, and could not stand or walk for much of her life. 

She suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, stunted growth, periods of blindness, long periods of paralysis, and extreme nerve pain, and had a condition that is now known as transverse myelitis, which involves inflammation of the spine. 

When her father died, the family experienced financial challenges. Father Edward McGrath, a parish priest and member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, found accommodations for the family.

O’Connor later worked with McGrath to found a congregation of nurses to care for those who were poor and ill. She told McGrath that she had experienced a vision of Mary, who encouraged her to embrace her suffering for others.

They faced many challenges with the congregation initially and were accused by a Sacred Heart missionary of maintaining an improper relationship. As a result of the allegations, which were later disproven, McGrath faced limitations in his role as a priest. His order threatened him with expulsion unless he ceased contact with O’Connor. He refused and traveled to Rome, where he successfully appealed his case and was reinstated in his order. 

In 1915, O’Connor, with the help of her nurse, traveled to Rome and London to support his cause in 1915. She was granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV. 

While McGrath’s appeal was successful, he was prevented from returning to Australia for almost three decades. He traveled to Britain where he served as a chaplain for the British Army during World War I and received the Military Cross and a nomination for the Victoria Cross for acts of bravery in war.  

O’Connor continued with her work on her own. She led the congregation, who called her “Little Mother,” until she died at 28 on January 10, 1921, of chronic tuberculosis in her spine. 

When her remains were later exhumed and moved to the chapel at the congregation’s home in 1936, her body was found to be incorrupt. 

Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor continued its ministry in Australia. Now an independent ministry of the Sisters, the Brown Nurses serve as employed nurses who care for the sick and the poor in their homes. 

Canonization process 

Father Anthony Robbie, a priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney and diocesan postulator of O’Connor’s cause, will be traveling with Archbishop Fisher to Rome to present the evidence to the dicastery after four years of investigation. 

Father Julian Wellspring oversaw the cause which began about four years ago in February 2020. 

O’Connor was declared a Servant of God in 2018. 

The modern-day path to sainthood entails a three-stage process in which individuals are declared in succession venerable, blessed, and saint. 

Church authorities examine and investigate the life of the person at least five years after his or her death, then send the results to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, where nine theologians will vote on whether the person has lived a virtuous, heroic life. If the panel agrees, the information will be reviewed by cardinals and bishops and then brought before the pope. With his approval, the Dicastery will declare the person “venerable.” In the case of martyrs, the title of “blessed” is automatically given. 

A venerable is declared blessed when a miracle attributed to his or her intercession is confirmed by a canonical investigation. A blessed can be canonized after the confirmation of a second miracle.

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Long-time pro-life activist Eva Edl (left) prays in front of a Senate office building on Capitol Hill, Sept. 6, 2001 to protest US President George W. Bush’s decision to allow limited stem cell research. / Credit: MIKE THEILER/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2024 / 14:14 pm (CNA).

An elderly survivor of a Soviet concentration camp and six other pro-life advocates were convicted of blocking access to a Michigan abortion clinic, the latest in a high-profile series of judgments against anti-abortion demonstrators in federal courts.

The seven defendants in the case were found guilty for their involvement in a “blockade of a reproductive health care clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan” on Aug. 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday. 

The demonstrators were convicted of both a felony conspiracy against rights and a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act offense, the government said. Sentencing will be set at a later date. 

Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, claimed the pro-life activists had “orchestrated an unlawful clinic blockade and physically obstructed patients seeking access to their doctors, without regard to the serious medical needs of the women they blocked from accessing reproductive health care.”

The defendants — Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Caroline Davis, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow — reportedly staged the demonstration as part of a “Michigan Holiness Revival Tour,” one that allegedly set out with the “express purpose of blockading a reproductive health clinic,” the Justice Department said. 

The 89-year-old Eva Edl is a well-known pro-life activist and a survivor of a communist concentration camp who fled Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe.

Her biography reveals that her mother was kidnapped by the Soviets in postwar Europe after which she and her siblings were sent to communist concentration camps in Yugoslavia. She eventually escaped and emigrated to the United States.

The Biden administration has aggressively prosecuted several FACE Act cases over the last few years, handing out prison sentences to men and women who attempted to block access to abortion clinics around the country. 

Some of the activists found guilty this week, including Eva Edl, were also found guilty earlier this year of a similar abortion clinic blockade in Tennessee in 2021. Edl has yet to be sentenced for that conviction. 

Last year multiple pro-life activists were convicted under the FACE Act for an October 2020 demonstration at the Washington Surgi-Clinic run by Cesare Santangelo in Washington, D.C.

Pro-life advocate Lauren Handy, 30, was sentenced in May to four years and nine months in prison for organizing the protest. 

Several other demonstrators ultimately received prison sentences ranging from about two to three years.

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy and 25 House Republicans last year introduced a resolution to repeal the FACE Act, arguing that the Biden administration had “brazenly weaponized the FACE Act against normal, everyday Americans across the political spectrum, simply because they are pro-life.” 

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, indicated earlier this year that he would move to release some of the convicted pro-lifers from prison if he is re-elected president in November. 

“Many people are in jail over this.… We’re going to get that taken care of immediately — [on the] first day,” he told the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June. 

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null / Credit: Lost_in_the_Midwest/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).
Montana on Tuesday became the eighth U.S. state to place a proposal on the November ballot that will allow voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion a… […]

“We believe that more high-quality research in this rapidly evolving area of health care is what’s needed, and our priority remains focused on patient safety and informed decision-making,” says Dr. Scott Bradley Glasburg, president of the Plastic Surgery Foundation. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The president of the Plastic Surgery Foundation, the research arm of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) told “EWTN News Nightly” that as of now, the research on chest and genital surgery for adolescents with gender dysphoria “simply isn’t strong enough to support any definitive recommendations” for such surgeries.

The ASPS recently made headlines for breaking with a perceived medical consensus, as many leading U.S. medical organizations continue to support both hormonal treatments and surgeries for minors with gender dysphoria.  

“As members of the multidisciplinary care team, plastic surgeons prioritize evidence-based medicine,” Dr. Scott Bradley Glasburg, president of the Plastic Surgery Foundation, told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Catherine Hadro on Tuesday. 

“We have a responsibility to provide comprehensive education and maintain a robust and evidence-based informed consent process,” he continued. “Currently, the research on chest and genital surgeries for adolescents with gender dysphoria simply isn’t strong enough to support any definitive recommendations from our society,” he stated.

When asked if the professional association experienced any political pressure to arrive at a particular decision, Glasburg responded that “plastic surgery is a specialty guided by evidence, and we’re not influenced by external sources or by politics.” 

“We believe that more high-quality research in this rapidly evolving area of health care is what’s needed, and our priority remains focused on patient safety and informed decision-making,” he added.

At least seven ASPS members are being sued by detransitioners, according to Manhattan Institute fellow and pediatric gender medicine expert Leor Sapir, who first published the statement from ASPS on the lack of evidence for justifying “transgender” surgeries.

For instance Kayla Lovdahl, 18, sued an ASPS doctor and two other physicians last year for allegedly pressuring her into sex-change surgeries when she was a child. ASPS member Winnie Tong and two other doctors performed a double mastectomy on Lovdahl when she was 13 years old and gave her puberty blockers when she was 12, according to her legal complaint.

Lovdahl “detransitioned” shortly after, at age 17, and received psychotherapy treatment for her mental health symptoms. 

When asked about the ASPS’s recent statement on the quality of referenced evidence, Glasburg further explained: “We believe that the level of evidence in these studies are of low quality. What that means is every study has strengths and limitations that can tell us something interesting. But it’s important to take a step back and look at the effects that we see and analyze the larger body of evidence that accumulates over time.”

Uncertainty over long-term efficacy

“When we say there’s uncertainty as to long-term efficacy for the use of certain surgical interventions for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria, we mean that there’s uncertainty at many different levels,” Glasburg continued. “We’re unclear, really, what the outcomes [and] data show, what the long-term effects of these treatments might be or could be.”

“We feel a responsibility to remain committed to that evidence-based approach and seeing out the research necessary for the society to make any firm recommendations or come up with any guidance or guidelines” he said. 

Glasburg explained that ASPS will be following the evidence closely in the future, focusing on “patient safety” and “the clinical evidence available.”

“It’s all about the evidence for us,” he said. “Again, we’re separate from politics. We’re separate from outside forces.”

“We are committed to being a scientific organization of surgeons who want to do right by our patients and want to provide the education necessary to our members to make the right choices that are in the best interests of our patients and that of patient safety,” Glasburg noted.

Catholic bioethical take

In a separate interview with EWTN News, Catholic bioethicist Dr. Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, also weighed in on the issue. 

“Particularly with young people, that these irreversible changes should not be done to young persons who don’t really understand the lifelong consequences,” Meaney explained. “I think American medical societies are more and more going to realize this.” 

“I think also that they are going to be aware of the legal liability that doing this to children could come back in the form of lawsuits later on saying, ‘Wait a second, I did not have proper informed consent as to how life-transforming this would be, and I regret that decision,’” he noted.

The American College of Pediatricians in June called on all medical institutions to stop gender transition medication and surgeries for minors, urging organizations to treat mental health instead.

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