US

Montgomery, Ala., Jun 7, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- A Catholic ethicist raised concerns over a bill that would mandate “chemical castration” as a condition of parole for incarcerated pedophiles. The issue is at the crux of an Alabama bill that has passed the state’s legislature and now is awaiting the governor’s signature.

The bill, HB379, would mandate so-called “chemical castration” as a condition for granting parole to convicted sex offenders who offended against children 13 years of age or younger. The treatment would be provided and supervised by the Department of Public Health, and would be paid for by the parolees, unless they could demonstrate the inability to pay, the bill states.

The bill defines the chemical castration treatment as: “The receiving of medication, including, but not limited to, medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment or its chemical equivalent, that, among other things, reduces, inhibits, or blocks the production of testosterone, hormones, or other chemicals in a person’s body.” Medical experts have raised multiple concerns about the bill including the fact that a judge, rather than a doctor, would inform parolees about the possible and serious side-effects of the treatment, according to the Washington Post.

In comments to CNA, Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, an ethicist with The National Catholic Bioethics Center, said that blanket mandates of medical interventions “can raise more problems” than they solve.”

Pacholczyk said a case-by-case approach would be more appropriate.

“If testosterone-reducing agents are to be employed in a sensible fashion, it should be on a case-by-case, medically-indicated (and rehabilitation-oriented) basis, rather than as a universal requirement for every situation of establishing parole for convicted pedophiles,” Pacholczyk said in email comments.

A proponent of the bill responded to questions about whether the bill is inhumane, stating that he believes the “punishment should fit the crime.”

Rep. Steve Hurst, who introduced the bill, told local media that convicted pedophiles “have marked this child for life and the punishment should fit the crime.”

“I had people call me in the past when I introduced it and said, ‘Don’t you think this is inhumane?'” Hurst told CBS affiliate WIAT-TV.

“I asked them what’s more inhumane than when you take a little infant child, and you sexually molest that infant child when the child cannot defend themselves or get away, and they have to go through all the things they have to go through. If you want to talk about inhumane, that’s inhumane.”

According to Catholic ethical principles, punitive measures should always be ordered toward “rehabilitation and repentance, not towards the inflicting of unreasonable or disproportionate harm upon an individual who has committed an offense,” Pacholczyk added. For example, he said, the Catholic Church would not condone chopping off the hands of a repeatedly-offending thief.

Likewise, “chemically castrating” a person so as to “actively strip away any vestige of an offender’s personal sexuality and render him sterile, androgynous, and/or inert, this could raise legitimate ethical concerns about violating that person’s bodily and personal integrity,” he said.

“This would be a moral concern particularly if other means of treating these individuals were not exhaustively pursued, such as incarceration, directed treatments and therapies, counseling, spiritual support, etc.,” he added.

In some cases, the priest noted, it could be morally and ethically licit for a sex offender to take drugs that would lower their testosterone levels and overall libido “to more manageable levels” if it were found to be medically appropriate for that specific person, and if it were part of a broader therapetic regimen involving “extensive psychological and other supportive counseling aimed at helping them order their sexual impulses so as not to re-offend,” he said.

In those particular cases, the term “chemical castration” may be an improper term, Pacholczyk noted, if the goal is the overall healing and restoration of normal, baseline hormone levels in a person.

[…]

St. Paul, Minn., Jun 7, 2019 / 06:04 pm (CNA).- Minnesota’s largest diocese will hold a synod— a meeting designed to help the bishop shepherd his local flock— during Pentecost Weekend 2021, Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced yesterday.

It will be the first synod for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since 1939.

“In the time that I have served in this archdiocese, I have come to believe that our local Church is particularly ripe for a synod,” Hebda said in a June 6 letter. The archbishop said he plans to formally announce the synod process at the Vigil of Pentecost this weekend.

“We are blessed here with a particularly well-educated and articulate laity with a strong tradition of service to the Church, who along with their clergy and consecrated brothers and sisters, want to be involved in shaping her future, seeing that appropriately as both their right and their responsibility.”

St. Pope John Paul II, with the 1983 Code of Canon Law, emphasized the “threefold priestly, prophetic and kingly office” of all people in the Church and expressed a need for greater prominence for a “traditional structure for consultation and governance in the Church”: the diocesan synod.

Several U.S. dioceses have held diocesan synods in the past decade, including Detroit, Michigan; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Burlington, Vermont; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Diego, California; and Washington, D.C., the Catholic Spirit reports.

“After the listening sessions that were held in 2015 when I was still serving as the temporary administrator, I drew up suggestions for the next archbishop, never thinking it would be me. At the top of that list was the convoking of an archdiocesan synod,” Hebda explained.

The pre-synodal process will involve 20 “prayer and listening events” throughout the archdiocese that will “shape our future discussion and deliberations…grounded in prayer and in God’s Word,” Hebda said. The synod will help to shape the next 5-10 years of pastoral priorities in the archdiocese.

In March, the archdiocese announced the creation of a lay advisory board designed to “create a flow of information back and forth from parishes to archbishop, and archbishop back to parishes,” the archdiocesan liaison told CNA. The board will include a lay representative from each deanery in the archdiocese.

“I have sensed that many of you seem to be ready to roll up your sleeves to address some of the pastoral needs that had been placed on the back burner. The enthusiasm surrounding the new Lay Advisory Board would seem to confirm that,” Hebda commented.

“Without losing sight of either the critical importance of our Catholic schools or the urgency of creating safe environments and engaging in outreach to those who have in any way been harmed by the Church, we now need to be deliberate in moving forward on other fronts.”

Father Michael Tix, archdiocesan liaison for the effort and vicar for clergy and parish services, told CNA in March that discussions with the archbishop, facilitated through the new lay advisory board, will mainly be about the “particular needs” of parishes or areas of deaneries in order to move forward and promote healing after “four years of bankruptcy, civil and criminal charges, [and] resignations.”

The discussions will also be a chance for the archdiocese to inform the lay representatives about what has been going on in the local Church regarding sexual abuse, and what steps the archdiocese is taking to addess it, Tix said.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2015 amid many abuse claims that had been made possible under Minnesota legislation that opened a temporary window for older claims to be heard in civil court. In addition, former Archbishop John Nienstedt stepped down in 2015 after the diocese was charged with mishandling cases of child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Hebda announced in May of last year a $210 million settlement package for victims of sexual abuse. He has said there are no plans for additional parish appeals to help to fund the settlements, saying last June that most of the settlement money – $170 million – would come from the archdiocese’s insurance and from money already collected from parish appeals.

The settlement, announced after more than two years’ deliberation, includes a plan for abuse compensation as well as for bringing the archdiocese out of bankruptcy. The amount is an increase of more than $50 million from the proposal that the archdiocese had originally submitted.

“It’s been a tough time to be Catholic in the Twin Cities because of a lot of stuff that’s come out that we’ve had to deal with and that we continue to deal with. So I think the first thing that we’re going to talk about is about healing. How do we bring healing to folks? There’s a range of need that’s there. And so in order to move forward we have to address that healing,” Tix said.

[…]

Las Vegas, Nev., Jun 7, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The man suspected in the March shooting death of a former priest who was credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors had responded to a Craigslist ad looking for young men to wrestle, according to Nevada police.

John Capparelli, 70, was found dead in the kitchen of his Henderson, Nev., home March 9 with a gunshot wound to the neck. He had been a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, and was accused of groping, abusing, and photographing underage males, often in the context of wrestling.

Henderson police issued a warrant April 4 for the arrest of Derrick Decoste, 25, on charges of murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with Capparelli’s death.

Police discovered phone records demonstrating that Capperelli exchanged calls and texts with a number linked to Decoste between Feb. 21 and March 6.

Decoste’s girlfriend told police he was “eager to make money” and so had responded to Capparelli’s post seeking wrestlers, Mike Shoro of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported June 4.

She indicated that Decoste said he had robbed Capparelli after his second visit to his home. She turned over to police a bag with several wristwatches, at least one of which was identifiable as Capparelli’s, and Decoste’s handgun. Capparelli was shot with that handgun, according to the warrant.

The warrant said that investigators found in Capparelli’s home hundreds of homemade films with “nearly-nude men wrestling inside of the home, presumably while the victim filmed them,” and indications he “often kept the company of prostitutes or paid entertainers.”

They also found a hard copy of a Craigslist ad from Capparelli seeking “young and good looking men” willing to wrestle or to compete in “submission matches.”

During a March 26 interview with Henderson detectives “Decoste clearly intended to deceive investigators to include providing misleading information,” according to the warrant.

Decoste is in a county jail in Michigan on unrelated charges of credit card fraud and impersonating a police officer, and is awaiting extradition to Nevada.

Capparelli was removed from parish ministry in 1989, suspended from any ministry in 1992, and was dismissed from the clerical state around 2013.

He was never prosecuted or convicted of a crime, but he was at the center of lawsuits against himself, the Newark archdiocese, Theodore McCarrick, and the Boy Scouts of America. At least one suit resulted in a settlement.

At one time he ran a website which sold videos of adult men wrestling in very little clothing.

Capparelli was ordained in 1980, and was assigned at three parishes, a prep school, and as a temporary chaplain at a hospital.

According to the Newark archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clerics, Capparelli had multiple victims, and had been “Permanently removed from ministry/Laicized”. Accusations against him date from the 1970s through the early 1990s.

In 1993, one year after being suspended from ministry, Capparelli became a public school teacher in Newark. In 2011 he was teaching math to ninth graders, according to The Star-Ledger.

The Newark school district learned of the allegations from the The Star-Ledger in 2011, and reviewed his record, but said there were no allegations against his time as a teacher. He was soon after removed from the classroom and given an administrative position at the school district’s headquarters. Spokeswoman Renee Harper said that “he has not been demoted and remains an employee in good standing.”

He also served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University from 1990 to 2009, The Star-Ledger found.

Capparelli was sent to a treatment center in Jemez Springs, N.M., for several months in 1989 on the recommendation of Theodore McCarrick, who was then the Archbisop of Newark.

[…]

Denver, Colo., Jun 7, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- When the Netflix series ‘13 Reasons Why’, which features teen suicide, first aired in 2017, mental health professionals expressed concerns that the show could have a contagion effect, triggering an increase in suicides among teens inspired by the show.

A new study suggests these fears were not unfounded. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, United States youth ages 10-17 had a 28.9% increase in suicide rates in young males in the month (April 2017) following the debut of the show.

“The number of deaths by suicide recorded in April 2017 was greater than the number seen in any single month during the five-year period examined by the researchers,” the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported. Increases in suicide rates among youth were also found in the month leading up to the shows release, and through December 2017, nine months after its release.

“The findings highlight the necessity of using best practices when portraying suicide in popular entertainment and in the media,” NIMH stated in a press release on the study.

The study was conducted by multiple researchers from several different universities, hospitals, and the NIMH, which also funded the study. The study found that the increase in suicides was statistically significant among young males. The increase in suicides among young females in association with the show was not statistically significant.

For the study, researchers analyzed death rates due to suicide based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s web-based Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research.

Researchers found the increase in suicide rates even after adjusting for otherwise expected suicide rates during that time period, based on ongoing suicide trends. They also found that suicide rates did not increase during the studied time period for people ages 18-64.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the CDC. Studies show that publicized suicides may also trigger a ripple effect of additional suicides within communities.

“The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” one author of the study, Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., M.P.H., a clinical scientist in the NIMH Intramural Research Program, said in a statement. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”

The Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” developed by Brian Yorkey, is based on a young adult novel with the same title by author Jay Asher. The series examines the suicide of 17 year-old Hannah Baker, who made 13 cassette tapes prior to her death. Each tape is addressed to a different person at her school, and details how and why they contributed to her desire to take her own life. It also graphically depicts Baker’s suicide in a scene in which she slits her wrists and lets her blood spill into her bathtub at home.

Mental health experts and other critics have raised concerns that the show portrays suicide as an act of revenge and a power play, rather than as an irreversible tragedy.

“There was a kind of romanticization, and at the core of the story was this idea that you can kill yourself and be dead and yet not really be dead,” Don Mordecai, Kaiser Permanente’s national leader for mental health, told Business Insider. “Because, of course, (Baker) continues to be a character – she’s in scenes, and she’s still there in many ways.”

The creators of the Netflix original series insisted in a follow-up video that 13 Reasons was meant to be helpful – to bring up important conversations about serious topics like suicide, bullying and assault, and to get viewers talking about solutions to suicidal thoughts. The second season of the show includes a disclaimer, telling teenagers to watch the show with a trusted adult and to seek help if they experience suicidal thoughts.

But even prior to this recent study, the show faced much backlash from mental health experts, who said it failed to follow several of the “Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide,” a list of guidelines for media outlets developed by suicide prevention experts and journalists. Experts advise against sensational headlines or depicting the method of suicide, which studies have shown can lead to suicide contagion, or “copycat” suicides.

Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, a U.S. non-profit suicide prevention group, said at the show’s release that it may do “more harm than good.”

A Florida schools superintendent warned parents in April 2017 that the show was inspiring an increase in self-harming and suicidal threats among elementary and middle school students, according to the Washington Post.

A survey published in November 2018 also found that of 87 suicidal teenagers aged 13 to 17 who were taken to the emergency department, 43 of them said that they had watched at least one episode of “13 Reasons Why”. Of those who had seen the show, 21 reported that they believe it had increased their risk for suicide.

In the press release for the NIMH study, the authors concluded that the findings “should serve as a reminder to be mindful of the possible unintended impacts of the portrayal of suicide, and as a call to the entertainment industry and the media to use best practices when engaging with this topic.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Jun 7, 2019 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The 1976 Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of Medicaid funds for most abortions. Biden, who voted as a senator in favor of the Hyde Amendment when it was first written, had reaffirmed his support for the l… […]

Chicago, Ill., Jun 7, 2019 / 03:08 am (CNA).- On Friday, May 31, four lanes of traffic on a major thoroughfare in the city of Chicago shut down for an hour and a half, while 3,200 people marched past.

Instead of political banners, they held candles. I… […]

Washington D.C., Jun 7, 2019 / 12:34 am (CNA).- In his opening question for Peter J. Phipps, a judicial nominee for the United States Third Circuit court, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) started with what he called “a hard question.”

“Are y… […]

Tallahassee, Fla., Jun 6, 2019 / 07:34 pm (CNA).- The co-cathedral of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee was damaged by fire Wednesday, with several of the chairs in the sanctuary set ablaze using an accelerant. The church’s rector has said he … […]

Arlington, Va., Jun 6, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Sgt. Carl Mann, Sr. died March 30 at the age of 96, almost a month after his son, Fr. Gordon Mann, died of leukemia at the age of 59.

Both of the Manns’ lives were changed forever on June 6, decades apart.

For the patriarch of the Mann family, his life-altering June 6 came in 1944, when he was part of the second wave of soldiers who stormed Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day invasion. Gordon’s was in 1992, when he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Evansville.

According to Miles and Carl Mann II, two of Carl Sr.’s sons, nobody realized the significance of the overlapped dates until they began planning their father’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery – which was also held June 6.

The brothers do not believe this happened by chance.

“It’s not a coincidence, I promise you,” Miles told CNA. “I’m not good enough to try to coordinate anything like this and put all these pieces together. But God’s perfect and that’s how it happens.”

Their father lived his life by a simple motto: “God, country, and family.”

While in the army, Mann would take time to pray and evangelize, even in the face of death and in the midst of bloodshed.

Mann would baptize soldiers in the middle of battle. Miles said he “was basically just the hands and feet of Jesus to do that.”

Carl II said that his father was willing and able to baptize on the battlefield as he knew that he was “spiritually ready” to die, and wanted to make sure others were as well.

“He just knew there was nothing in the world more important than (baptism),” said Miles. “Not even his own life.”

Some soldiers came to know Christ in their dying moments because of Mann’s battlefield prayers.

“His buddies would ask him was he was doing because they saw him kneeling down praying in the middle of the battle. And, a lot of those men didn’t know who Jesus was,” said Miles. They would ask Mann to teach them how to pray, and he would reply, “just listen.”

“He’d finish the prayer and then they would finish whatever skirmish or battle or event they were in the middle of. Some of them made it, some of them didn’t, but the ones that did not make it, they got to meet Jesus through him.”

Initially, Sgt. Mann was reluctant to discuss his military experience, and would often make jokes relating to his service.

“He would say, ‘Boy, I couldn’t wait to get off that (Omaha) beach. We were out of hotdogs and the ice cream was melting,’” said Miles. That all changed about a decade ago, after he was asked by a grandchild on which side of World War II he had fought.

Realizing that history was at risk of being forgotten, he began to open up more about his service, and shared his story at high schools and to his family. In addition to Normandy, Mann also served in the Battle of the Bulge and assisted in the liberation of two concentration camps. He was awarded three Purple Hearts and seven Bronze Stars, which enabled him to be buried at Arlington.

Sgt. Mann’s priorities of God, country, and family will leave a lasting legacy after his death.

“I think that I could give one perspective on it. It’s Dad’s statement was this: You know, my brother is him,” said Carl II, gesturing around.

“My brothers were willing to die for freedom. He said, ‘but there was only one who died for our sins.’ And that was his faith.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Jun 6, 2019 / 04:33 pm (CNA).- Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is facing opposition within the Democratic Party after voicing his support for the Hyde Amendment, a federal policy prohibiting tax dollars from paying for elective abortions.

Biden’s presidential campaign this week reiterated his support for the Hyde Amendment to NBC News.

The move immediately drew strong criticism from abortion advocacy groups, as well as from other Democratic candidates.

“There’s no political or ideological excuse for Joe Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment, which translates into discrimination against poor women and women of color plain and simple,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a June 5 statement.

Kelley Robinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, was similarly critical.

“As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” she said in a statement.

Biden, who has been vocal about his Catholic faith throughout his political career, has repeatedly said that he is personally opposed to abortion but supports its legality. In his 2007 book “Promises to Keep,” Biden described his position on abortion as “middle-of-the-road” and reiterated his opposition to both federal funding of abortions and partial-birth abortions.

While Biden’s views on abortion have shifted over time, he has generally presented himself as pro-choice. Throughout his time in the Senate, he opposed numerous pro-life Supreme Court appointments. Last month, he released a video opposing new state-level pro-life legislation and saying he would support federal protections for abortion. He has recently reiterated that he thinks Roe v. Wade is “the law of the land.”

Biden’s stance on the Hyde Amendment, however, puts him at odds with other major Democratic hopefuls, including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren.

The Hyde Amendment was introduced in 1976 by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). It is not a law, but rather has been passed as a rider to budget legislation every year.

A policy that has been supported by members of both parties, it prohibits federal tax dollars from paying for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when it is deemed necessary to save the life of the mother.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, has estimated that more than 2 million unborn lives have been saved as a result of the policy.

Various efforts to repeal the Hyde Amendment over the years have failed.

Biden enjoys a strong lead in the polls over more than two dozen other Democratic presidential hopefuls. While many of the other prominent candidates have moved in an increasingly progressive direction with their policy proposals, Biden has remained more moderate on topics such as the environment and health care. The former vice president argues that in order to beat President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, the Democratic Party will need to appeal to mainstream voters, including moderate independents and dissatisfied Republicans.

A survey by the Harvard School of Public Health found that the majority of Americans oppose taxpayer money being used for elective abortions.

However, the Democratic Party in 2016 included in its national platform a statement of support for repealing the Hyde Amendment, as well as opposition to state and federal restrictions on abortion.

Several other Democratic presidential contenders shot back at Biden and reiterated their own stance in favor of removing the Hyde Amendment.

“There is #NoMiddleGround on women’s rights. Abortion is a constitutional right. Under my Medicare for All plan, we will repeal the Hyde Amendment,” said U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Twitter.

“No woman’s access to reproductive health care should be based on how much money she has,” said U.S. Senator Kamala Harris. “We must repeal the Hyde Amendment.”

“No matter your income or where you live, every woman should have access to health care including abortion,” said former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

[…]