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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 22, 2024 / 16:27 pm (CNA).
The Republican Study Committee (RSC), of which over 80% of House Republicans are members, dedicated a section of its “Fiscal Sanity to Save America”… […]
Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, speaks at a press conference on the debt limit and the Freedom Caucus’s plan for spending reduction at the U.S. Capitol on March 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 22, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
Four congressmen in the conservative House Freedom Caucus voiced “strong objections” to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plan to expand its coverage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to unmarried veterans, including those in same-sex relationships.
Under the previous rules, the VA only covered IVF treatments for married couples who produce their own eggs and sperm for the fertility treatment. The new policy will allow donor eggs and sperm and cover treatments for unmarried people who require such donations to create an embryo.
The lawmakers, led by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, expressed their dissent in a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough on March 20. He was joined by Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Virginia; Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois; and Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Oklahoma.
“An IVF embryo is the earliest stage of life that exists outside of the womb,” Rosendale said in a statement accompanying the letter.
“Through this expansion, a surplus of embryos will be created, which are likely to result in abandoned or cruelly discarded human life,” Rosendale said. “Accompanying that, legislation has been introduced previously to expand IVF at the VA, meaning the legality of this decision is questionable at best.”
IVF is a fertility treatment in which doctors extract eggs from the woman and fertilize the eggs with sperm to create human embryos in a laboratory without a sexual act. Clinics create a surplus of embryos to maximize the likelihood that the mother can bring one healthy baby to term — the remaining embryos are often discarded, which ends a human life, or frozen indefinitely.
The letter from the lawmakers notes that expanding IVF “creates a plethora of ethical concerns and questions” and calls the treatment “morally dubious.” Because most human embryos are either destroyed or abandoned, the signatories conclude it “should not be subsidized by the American taxpayer.”
Rosendale and his three colleagues also requested information from the VA pertaining to what the department does with surplus embryos, how many are destroyed or frozen, how much the IVF expansion and embryo storage will cost taxpayers, and what specific law grants them the authority to take this action.
Rather than expanding IVF, the lawmakers suggested the VA provide reimbursements for adoption efforts instead.
“There are around 400,000 children in foster care nationwide, and approximately 117,000 are waiting to be adopted,” the letter adds. “The VA also provides fertility and infertility care to help veterans who struggle with infertility. It would make more sense to use the funds that the expansion of IVF will cost to bolster adoption efforts at the VA.”
Under its current policies, the VA can provide up to $2,000 for adoption expenses, but only if the veteran has a service-connected disability that causes infertility. The law does not allow coverage for surrogacy.
Access to IVF became a major political issue after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF are covered under the state’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.” After several clinics stopped providing IVF, Republicans and Democrats in the state quickly passed legislation to grant clinics immunity in the deaths of human embryos, which was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, who claims to be pro-life.
A large number of Republicans, including lawmakers who are outspoken on other pro-life issues, distanced themselves from the ruling and embraced IVF despite the destruction to human life that is integral to the industry. Few have spoken out against the process.
The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life. Acknowledging the advances in science available today to those seeking help having children, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warns Catholics on its website of the ethical issues involved.
“The many techniques now used to overcome infertility also have profound moral implications, and couples should be aware of these before making decisions about their use,” the guidance reads.
null / Carl Ballou / Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).
A New Hampshire man was charged with the murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, which is the first time the state’s fetal homicide law has eve… […]
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, urges the Supreme Court to restore abortion pill restrictions at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and August Pfluger, R-Texas, Mar. 21, 2024. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/… […]
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CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
Following three years of modest growth, enrollment in Catholic education has remained stable since 2023, according to new data made public Wednesday by the Nat… […]
The St. Mary’s mens basketball team wins the West Coast Conference, earning themselves a spot in the NCAA tournament. / Credit: Ryan Barnett
CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
The St. Mary’s Gaels men’s basketball team made history this season by winning the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles on March 12, earning them an automatic bid for the NCAA men’s tournament.
It’s the third time in program history that the team has won both titles in the same season. This is their fifth tournament title. Their previous tournament title wins came in 1997, 2010, 2012, and 2019.
Since the beginning of the calendar year, the Gaels have only lost one game, winning 17 out of 18 games and ended the regular season 26-7 overall. The Gaels going into the tournament as the No. 5 seed in the West Region.
St. Mary’s will now face No. 12 Grand Canyon Antelopes in their first-round game at 10:05 p.m. ET on Friday, March 22.
St. Mary’s College, located in Moraga, California, was founded in 1863 by Father Joseph Sadoc Alemany, OP, who became the first archbishop of San Francisco. In 1868 the college was handed over to the De La Salle Christian Brothers, who still administer the school. The private Catholic liberal arts college has a student body of approximately 4,000 students.
Several other Catholic colleges will be joining St. Mary’s in the “Big Dance,” including Creighton University, Gonzaga University, Marquette University, St. Peter’s University, and the University of Dayton. There are also eight Catholic universities that made it to the NCAA women’s tournament — University of Notre Dame, University of Portland, Gonzaga University, Creighton University, Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University, College of the Holy Cross, and Marquette University.
Denny Bulcao, a St. Mary’s alum and former play-by-play announcer for the Gaels, told CNA that he believes the team has a “good chance of getting to the Sweet 16, possibly farther.”
“This would be our first Sweet 16 since 2010,” he said. “We’ve come pretty close about two or three times since. The last two seasons we lost in the round of 32.”
Bulcao was in attendance at the Gaels West Coast Conference Tournament championship game at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where the team beat Gonzaga 69-60.
“The energy and atmosphere in Las Vegas is always electric, especially the semifinal and final games because so many Gonzaga fans attend,” Bulcao shared. “This year there were more St. Mary’s fans than I’d ever seen, which was excellent!”
St. Mary’s “won the semifinal game against Santa Clara pretty easily,” he added, “and the final was a hard-fought win over Gonzaga, a team that usually wins the conference and tournament championship.”
“St. Mary’s winning the regular season championship and the tournament championship is a really big deal, and it’s also especially fun to see St. Mary’s alumni and people that I worked with in the athletics department at the games.”
The former announcer highlighted the team’s defense and solid rebounding as its strengths.
“These are things that our head coach, Randy Bennett, has always stressed,” he explained. “We have a few talented shooters in guard Aidan Mahaney and forward Alex Ducas. Our ‘bigs,’ Mitchell Saxen and Mason Forbes, are usually solid. We also usually don’t make stupid mistakes or commit too many turnovers.”
Despite having a rocky start to their season, Bulcao said, “I think the team finally figured out who the true five starters would be and how they could play well together. Our point guard Augustas Marciulionis really stepped up and became the leader of the team, something we didn’t have and desperately needed for the first 10 games.”
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CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 11:35 am (CNA).
The Montana Supreme Court this week gave the green light to a pro-abortion amendment to the state’s constitution that may appear before voters in November. In a 6-1 decisio… […]
Carissa Carroll, pictured with her son Jack, founded the nonprofit organization Jack’s Basket to celebrate babies with Down syndrome / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN Pro-Life Weekly
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).
As many countries celebrate World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, a panel of pro-life leaders and scholars is calling attention to the threat that prenatal testing poses to preborn children who are diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb.
“[The mother] often faces tremendous internal and external pressure to undergo an abortion,” said J.D. Flynn, who moderated the panel at the Catholic University of America’s Institute for Human Ecology and is himself the father of two children with Down syndrome.
Prenatal screening within the first 11 through 14 weeks of pregnancy can determine whether a preborn child has a higher likelihood of having Down syndrome, but a follow-up diagnostic test can confirm whether the child has the condition. Although efforts to destigmatize the condition have had some success, the likelihood that a mother will abort her child increases dramatically after such a diagnosis.
A 2012 study that compiled data from 24 studies between 1995 and 2011 found that more than two-thirds of preborn children who were diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb were killed via abortion. Rates throughout Europe are even higher — more than 90%. In Iceland, nearly all preborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted and only about two or three children with Down syndrome are born every year.
Mary O’Callaghan, a visiting fellow at Notre Dame University’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, noted a disconnect between the “more positive” attitude the public expresses about people with Down syndrome and the “more aggressive targeting” of abortion for preborn children with Down syndrome.
“Those with Down syndrome are increasingly showing us their ability to flourish,” said O’Callaghan, who also has a child with Down syndrome. In spite of this, she said, “we’re in a much worse place in respect to abortion and Down syndrome.”
Bridget Brown, a 36-year-old woman with Down syndrome who serves on the National Catholic Partnership on Disability Council on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, expressed the same concern.
Noting the trends in countries such as Iceland, Brown said she may be from the last generation of people with Down syndrome: “The world may never again benefit from our gifts.”
“This is genocide — the systematic killing of a whole people,” Brown added, citing a letter she wrote to Pope Francis about the situation in Iceland before meeting the pontiff in 2017.
According to Tracy Winsor, who co-founded an organization to support couples who carry their children to term after a prenatal diagnosis called Be Not Afraid, many women consider abortion after a diagnosis because receiving the news is a “traumatic event” for most couples and is presented as a “worst-case scenario.”
Winsor noted that doctors will present a lot of information, which “can be overwhelming” at the moment. She advises parents to immediately connect with parents who have children living with Down syndrome and to advocates for individuals with Down syndrome.
O’Callaghan agreed: “Meeting with other parents around this time is very helpful [in reducing abortion].” Prenatal testing, she noted, should be oriented toward preparing for their child.
“They need to think about prenatal testing oriented toward the health of their child,” O’Callaghan said.
Brown similarly noted that like everyone else, her “life is filled with hopes and possibilities” and encouraged couples who receive a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis for their preborn child to approach the situation positively.
“Make plans based on dreams and not on fears,” Brown said. “Believe in yourself and your child.”
Veronica Webb leads a seminar for parents in fall 2023. / Credit: Courtesy of Notre Dame Law School
CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
An occupational therapist turned lawyer is piloting a legal program, now midway through its first seme… […]
Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie during a visit to Unbound’s headquarters in Nov. 2023. / Danika Wolf/Unbound
CNA Staff, Mar 20, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus in the popular television series “The Chosen,” will speak at the spring 2024 commencement at the Catholic University of America (CUA), the school announced Wednesday.
“Countless numbers of people have had their lives changed for the better by Jonathan Roumie through his portrayal of Jesus Christ,” CUA president Peter Kilpatrick said in a March 20 press release.
“Jonathan’s work is a testament to how Catholics can use their God-given talents to deliver messages of hope and to bring people closer to God,” Kilpatrick continued. “I look forward to welcoming him to The Catholic University of America.”
Besides playing Jesus Christ in “The Chosen,” which is now in its fourth season, Roumie has been featured on the Hallow prayer and meditation app, and has served as a ministry leader. He was also a keynote speaker at the annual March for Life in 2023 in Washington, D.C., and has more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram.
“Speaking at The Catholic University of America’s commencement is such an honor because I will be among those who not only value a quality education but a college experience formed by the Catholic faith,” Roumie said in the press release.
“I so look forward to celebrating with these graduates and sharing some insights into how one can live an inspired, fulfilling, and faithful life using the skills, talents, and intellect given to them by God,” he continued.
Roumie will speak at commencement on May 11 and receive an honorary doctoral degree, along with four others.
Rabbi Jack Bemporad, an interfaith leader, will also receive an honorary doctorate. Having fled the fascist takeover of Italy when he was 5 years old, Bemporad has since dedicated himself to improving relations among Christians, Muslims, and Jews across the world. He has authored several books about Christian and Jewish relations and is the founding director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding.
John Finnis, professor emeritus of University of Oxford and University of Notre Dame Law School and a Catholic legal and political thinker and renowned philosopher, will be receiving an honorary doctorate, along with speaker and writer Teresa Pitt Green, advocate, speaker, and co-founder of The Healing Voices magazine.
Father Piotr Nawrot, a Roman Catholic priest of the Divine World Ministries known for rediscovering and reconstructing 13,000 pages of music held by members of the Moxo and Chiquito tribes, among others, will also receive an honorary doctorate.
The commencement ceremony will take place on the steps of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, with about 1,300 graduating students.
CUA, established in 1887, just announced the launch of its “Lead with Light” brand platform, which Kilpatrick said “encapsulates who we are as an institution.”
The platform, he said, highlights “our dedication to academic excellence” as well as the “warm and welcoming community” at CUA, “where Christ is at the center of everything we do.”
© Catholic World Report