Steubenville, Ohio, Apr 4, 2018 / 06:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Facebook has apologized for what it called a “mistake” in rejecting a theology ad from Franciscan University of Steubenville, on the grounds that an image of the cross was too vio… […]
Washington D.C., Apr 4, 2018 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fifty years after the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Catholics can still learn much from his legacy, said a leader in the largest predominantly black Catholic organization in the U.S… […]
Washington D.C., Apr 4, 2018 / 12:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a pro-life group seeking to release undercover footage detailing alleged misconduct in the abortion industry.
The cases – David Daleidan et al. v. National Abortion Federation et al. and Troy Newman v. National Abortion Federation et al. – were appealed this past August after a lower court sided with the National Abortion Federation in the lawsuits.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case means that the lower court decisions will stand, and additional footage may not be released.
David Daleidan is the project lead at the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group that released a series of undercover videos in 2015 allegedly demonstrating the illegal sales of body parts from aborted babies.
The released videos appeared to show various Planned Parenthood and StemExpress executives discussing, often callously, their practices for obtaining and selling fetal body parts. Daleidan alleged that Planned Parenthood was profiting from these sales, which is illegal under federal law.
Other videos appeared to show abortion doctors describing how they would perform illegal late-term abortions in violation of state laws, utilizing a series of loopholes, and one cracked a joke on camera about how her “biceps appreciate” when a drug kills the fetus before it is delivered.
At stake in the current lawsuits are several other unreleased videos that were shot at the 2014 and 2015 annual meetings of the National Abortion Federation. Daleidan attended the conference and filmed portions of it while using an alias.
The National Abortion Federation – a nonprofit that represents abortion clinics – filed suit in 2015 to prevent the videos from being released, claiming they were illegally recorded. Daleidan has defended himself against these allegations by saying he is a citizen journalist, and the videos were protected as part of his work as a reporter.
On Twitter, Daleidan said that the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation of Planned Parenthood means that the unreleased footage will “only grow more and more relevant” until it will be eventually released.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>As <a href=”https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@TheJusticeDept</a> continues to investigate <a href=”https://twitter.com/PPact?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@PPact</a> for the criminal sale of baby body parts, the undercover footage that Judge Orrick continues to suppress will only grow more and more relevant until it can finally be revealed to the public.<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PPSellsBabyParts?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#PPSellsBabyParts</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutThemDown?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#ShutThemDown</a> <a href=”https://t.co/NtWNfld1zb”>https://t.co/NtWNfld1zb</a></p>— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) <a href=”https://twitter.com/daviddaleiden/status/980971235268952064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The Center for Medical Progress claims to have many more hours of unreleased video of abortion providers.
Washington D.C., Apr 4, 2018 / 03:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bells will ring out in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination April 4, and Catholic bishops say it is a time for Christians to ask God what they need to do to counter racism.
“The moment is also an opportunity for us to pause and reflect individually on what we are doing to build the culture of love, respect and peace to which the Gospel calls us and to also ask ourselves how we seek to help our brothers and sisters still suffering under the weight of racism,” the bishops said.
April 4 marks the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tenn. Commemorations will include a moment of silence and a worldwide bell-ringing campaign.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and The King Center in Atlanta will begin to ring bells at 6:01 p.m. Central Time. The City of Memphis bells will follow at 6:03 p.m. Nation-wide, bells will begin to ring at 6:05. Then international participants will begin two minutes later.
In Washington, D.C., the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception will also take part. Its bells will peal 39 times, King’s age at his death, “in homage to Dr. King’s legacy and his many contributions including the principle of non-violent resistance,” the U.S. bishops said.
The tolling of the basilica’s bells will be broadcast live on the basilica’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nationalshrine/
In Memphis, local Catholics will participate in the commemoration.
Memphis Bishop Martin D. Holley, who is African-American, will celebrate 9 a.m. Mass at Immaculate Conception Cathedral with visiting bishops and Catholic clergy of Memphis. There will be a period of reflection after Mass, followed by a time of reflection and then a rosary at St. Peter’s Church.
Bishop Holley will say Mass at the National Shrine of St. Martin de Porres and help lead a “Walk of Faith” from St. Peter’s Church to the National Civil Rights Museum in time for the program and the moment of silence.
The U.S. bishops’ administrative committee offered Catholics questions for reflection.
“What are we being asked to do for the sake of our brother or sister who still suffers under the weight of racism? Where could God use our efforts to help change the hearts of those who harbor racist thoughts or engage in racist actions?” the bishops asked.
They said inspiration can be found in King’s steadfastness in non-violent resistance, “even in the face of years of ridicule, threats and violence for the cause of justice.”
“Dr. King came to Memphis to support underpaid and exploited African-American sanitation workers, and arrived on a plane that was under a bomb threat. He felt God had called him to solidarity with his brothers and sisters in need,” the bishops said.
They cited King’s final speech the night before he was killed, in which he noted the threats against him and voiced his preference for a long life.
“But more important to him, he said, was his desire to simply do the will of God,” the bishops said.
Their statement cited the Gospel of John: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
James Earl Ray, a small-time criminal with a prison record and a history of hatred for African Americans and King in particular, pleaded guilty to the 1968 assassination, then recanted and claimed he was a peripheral figure in a broader conspiracy. A Congressional committee concluded in 1978 that Ray was the killer, although others might have been involved, Ray’s 1998 New York Times obituary said.
“Our faith urges us to be courageous, to risk something of ourselves, in defending the dignity of our neighbor who is made in the image of God,” the bishops continued. “Pope Francis reminds us often that we must never sit on the sidelines in the face of great evil or extreme need, even when danger surrounds us.”
“We can best honor Dr. Martin Luther King and preserve his legacy by boldly asking God—today and always—to deepen our own commitment to follow His will wherever it leads in the cause of promoting justice.”
The bishops noted the many events put on by The King Center this year, listed at its website www.MLK50Forward.org.
Memphis, Tenn., Apr 3, 2018 / 06:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was fatally shot outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
King is remembered as the most visible leader of the civil rights movement, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and as the founding president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But he was first a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and remained active in pastoral leadership throughout his life.
On the day after King was killed, Pope Paul VI expressed remorse during his Angelus address, saying that the civil rights leader was “a Christian prophet for racial integration.”
Shortly after King’s death, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Synagogue Council of America, and the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in the Americas released an interfaith statement, mourning their colleague in ministry.
We “bow together in grief before the shameful murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a unique apostle of the non-violent drive for justice, [and] affirm that no service of remembrance or local memorial is equal to the greatness of his labor or the vastness of our national need.”
The faith leaders also applauded the efforts of Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1968, encouraged Americans to support measures favoring integration, and pled with government officials to fund legislation aimed at fighting poverty.
We “affirm that only through massive contributions by the American people can this nation duly honor the life-offering of Martin Luther King, Jr. and responsibly lift up the burden of the poor and oppressed in our land.”
The statement also promised to implement coordinated efforts among religious communities to fight poverty.
We “declare our intention to take immediate steps to develop a coordinated sacrificial effort on the part of the American religious community to help the disadvantaged,” the statement read.
Faith leaders were not the only ones to pay tribute to King after his assassination.
On the night King was killed, Senator Robert Kennedy, a Catholic, spoke to the people of Indianapolis, urging them to greater compassion and a deterrence from violence. Kennedy spoke during a stop on his 1968 campaign for President, delivering the news to a multiracial crowd that King had been assassinated.
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black,” he said on April 4, 1968.
Kennedy referenced the assassination of his own brother, President John F. Kennedy, which had taken place in 1963.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times,” Kennedy said.
The senator urged Americans to take up King’s efforts, pray for King’s family and the nation, and join in solidarity those longing for peace.
“The vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land,” he added.
“I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that’s true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love–a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.”
Denver, Colo., Apr 3, 2018 / 04:02 pm (CNA).- On Monday, Villanova University won the NCAA basketball tournament for the second time in three years. The University of Notre Dame won the women’s tournament on Easter Sunday, beating Mississippi Sta… […]
Washington D.C., Apr 3, 2018 / 01:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an injunction on Friday that blocked a Trump administration policy which prevented undocumented teenagers being held in federal custody from undergoing a… […]
Fredericksburg, Va., Apr 3, 2018 / 01:07 pm (CNA).- David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life, entered the Catholic Church on Easter, giving thanks for the inspiration of influential Catholics, including his wife and children.
“After years of prayer, discernment, and a whole lot of wrestling with God, I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at last night’s Easter Vigil,” wrote Bereit in an April 1 Facebook post.
Bereit celebrated Easter with his family at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His wife Margaret was his sponsor, and his son Patrick was an altar server at the Mass. His daughter Claire and mother-in-law Helen were also in attendance.
Bereit said that he had been attending Sunday Mass with his wife – who is Catholic – every week for the last 28 years, ever since their second date at St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M in 1990.
But while he and Margaret shared many things in common as Christians, Bereit said he also longed to be more unified in their church affiliation and therefore spent years wrestling with the Catholic Church.
“I struggled with many questions, misconceptions, and hangups along the way. I have endeavored to continually learn and grow through prayer, studying Scripture, theology, and church history, reading, and seeking wise counsel,” he said.
“Throughout my life I have also been surrounded by many amazing Catholic Christians whose faithful, loving witness has continually inspired and attracted me – most notably the beautiful example lived out by my incredible wife and wonderful children.”
Last September, Bereit experienced a profound encounter of faith during Eucharistic adoration. Soon after, he began attending RCIA classes, which he said led to a more fruitful Lent and Easter this year.
“Lent took on far more meaning than usual for me, as I prayed and fasted more intensely than ever with a focused desire to continue growing closer to Christ. Now I am filled with joy, and am at complete peace, about this next step in my life-long journey of faith.”
In 2004, Bereit began 40 Days for Life as a local prolife advocacy group in Bryan-College Station, Texas. The group has grown into an international organization, holding Christian campaigns of prayer and activism to end abortion. Over the course of 40 days, participants hold a 24/7 prayer vigil outside of a single abortion facility in the community. The organization also engages in community outreach, through partnerships with churches and door-to-door petitions.
Bereit stepped down as CEO in 2016, but continues to be actively involved in the pro-life movement.
He said in his Facebook post that his decision to become Catholic may be surprising to some, but it will not change his dedication to serve the entire body of Christ.
“This journey has deepened my appreciation for a wonderful Christian upbringing, my years of experiences within the Presbyterian Church, the time I was involved with Evangelical ministries while in college, and the blessing of getting to work and pray alongside the many different parts of the Body of Christ in my 15+ years of pro-life work.”
Los Angeles, Calif., Apr 3, 2018 / 12:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has signed 17 new protocols recognizing the Native Americans of California as the “First People of the Land” and offering guidelines for past… […]
Washington D.C., Apr 2, 2018 / 04:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal judge ruled in favor of the Catholic Benefits Association last week, issuing a permanent injunction and declaratory relief against the Department of Health and Human Services’ co… […]
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