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This pro-life Democrat is worried about the next Catholic president

January 19, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Denver Newsroom, Jan 19, 2021 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- A former U.S. representative who was known as one of the last standing pro-life Democrats in Congress said he is worried about the example a Catholic president who is also pro-abortion will have on young Catholics. 

“I’m afraid that there’s a lot of talk about Joe Biden being our second Catholic president,” said Dan Lipinski, a former U.S. representative for the third district of Illinois, on the southwest side of Chicago.

“It’s going to be very clear early on if he does move on the executive orders, with respect to abortion, that’s going to be very problematic, especially as a Catholic.”

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to repeal several pro-life policies put in place by the Trump administration, including the Protect Life Rule and the expanded Mexico City Policy. Biden has also pledged to repeal the Hyde Amendment and codify Roe v. Wade into law.

Among other things, these changes would allow for taxpayer funding to groups that perform abortions, both domestically and overseas. 

Lipinski said that his own Catholic faith influenced him during the 16 years he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, including by shaping his pro-life beliefs. Lipinksi was known as one of the last standing pro-life Democrats in Congress, voting against the party line on numerous legislative issues involving abortion.

“I knew that I was never going to change my position on abortion and in protecting lives. I knew that from the beginning,” Lipinski said in an interview with CNA, citing his Catholic faith in influencing his pro-life convictions.

“Honestly I just never believed that it was worthwhile to protect a seat in Congress, to protect my position in Congress, no matter how much I loved the job and was honored to represent the people of the third district. It just wasn’t worth it to me to give up what I knew was right.”

Lipinski said he believes Catholics should allow their faith to influence all aspects of their lives.

“We all fall short, but we’re all called to always, in everything we do, put our Catholic faith first and have that really inspire and guide what we do,” he said. “Certainly that extends to life as an elected official.”

While some Catholics argue that they are personally pro-life, but do not want to impose their values on other people, Lipinksi rejected this line of thinking.

“If you truly believe that the baby in the womb is a human person, alive…you can’t compromise that away. You can’t say, ‘well, not everyone believes that, so I’m not going to support that.’ You have to do everything you can to protect that life,” he said.

At the end of his time in Congress, Lipinksi was one of the sole Democrats opposing the party’s abortion stance. But it wasn’t always that way.

He remembers having several pro-life, Democratic colleagues during his first years in the House.

“I was still in the minority, but I always like to point out to people that back in 2009, the first time the Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare – passed the House, there was the Stupak–Pitts Amendment.”

The Stupack-Pitts Amendment prevented taxpayer dollars from being spent on elective abortion or insurance that covered elective abortion, and Lipinski said 64 Democrats voted for it.

“I think there may be a handful, a small handful, of Democrats who would support that in the House today,” he said. “With my loss last year and Collin Peterson in Minnesota, there really are no Democrats left that are 100% pro-life.”

“I’m very concerned about the direction the party has gone when it comes to the abortion issue, when it comes to family issues, protection of religious liberty,” he said. “The party really needs to … at the very least recognize people who are pro-life and respect their position, and at the very least not support taxpayer funding of abortion.”

Lipinski lost his seat last March in a primary race against Marie Newman, after pro-abortion groups contributed to a coalition giving more than $1.4 million in funding to Newman. 

The congressman said the night he knew he lost the primary was difficult for him. But he actually remembers the next day best.

“The next day I had people contacting me and thanking me for standing up for my principles, staying true to my Catholic faith, and I knew that God was calling me to something bigger,” he said. 

Lipinski said he is working on a book about being Catholic in the public square today, “and encouraging Catholics to stay true to their Catholic faith in a world right now that’s very tough and a very bipolar, tribal society where Catholics don’t fit in neatly to either two tribes.” 

The book is an extension of a commencement address he delivered at Ave Maria University in 2019.

“As a former college professor, I especially want to reach out to young Catholics. I think these days, especially,” Lipinski said. “They need to have good examples, and they’re really thirsting for a better understanding of what it means to be Catholic, and encouragement to be Catholic.”

“We are a very divided country right now. Catholics don’t fit neatly into either party. I think that Catholics have really an opportunity to be a witness for every aspect of Catholic social teaching,” he said. “Obviously, the right to life is the most important, but the dignity of every individual, and what the government can do to uphold that dignity in a lot of different ways.”

This interview originally aired on Catholic News Agency’s podcast, CNA Newsroom. It has been adapted for print. 


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US recognizes China’s treatment of Uyghurs as ‘genocide’

January 19, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 19, 2021 / 11:18 am (CNA).- The United States has declared that the Chinese government’s actions against the Uyghur population amount to genocide and crimes against humanity.

“I have determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet posted shortly after noon on January 19.

“These acts are an affront to the Chinese people and to civilized nations everywhere,” said Pompeo, on his last full day as secretary of state. “The People’s Republic of China and the CCP must be held to account.”

The Chinese government admitted in October 2018 that “re-education camps” for members of the Uyghur Muslim population had been established in Xingjiang. The camps were first spotted on satellite imagery in 2017.

The highest estimate sets the total number of inmates in the camps at 3 million, plus approximately half a million minor children in special boarding schools for “re-education” purposes. Survivors have reported indoctrination, forced abortions, beatings, forced labor, and torture in the camps.

In a statement published to the Department of State website, Pompeo further outlined his allegations against the People’s Republic of China.

“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” said Pompeo.

He specifically cited the “arbitrary imprisonment” of more than a million Uyghurs; the continued use of forced sterilization, torture, and forced labor; and “the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.”

Pompeo said he believes “this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state.”

“The governing authorities of the second most economically, militarily, and politically powerful country on earth have made clear that they are engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group, even as they simultaneously assert their country as a global leader and attempt to remold the international system in their image,” he said.

Pompeo, speaking on behalf of the United States, called for the People’s Republic of China to “immediately release all arbitrary detained persons” and to “abolish its system of internment, detention camps, house arrest and forced labor; cease coercive population control measures, including forced sterilizations, forced abortion, forced birth control, and the removal of children from their families; end all torture and abuse in places of detention; end the persecution of Uyghurs and other members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, and afford Uyghurs and other persecuted minorities the freedom to travel and emigrate.”

The secretary of state also requested that “all appropriate multilateral and relevant judicial bodies” to work alongside the United States “to promote accountability for those responsible for these atrocities.” The Department of State will continue to investigate the situation in Xinjiang, he said, and will make this evidence available to other authorities as well.

The sanctions against those who are promoting atrocities in Xinjiang will remain, said Pompeo.

“The United States has worked exhaustively to pull into the light what the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi Jinping wish to keep hidden through obfuscation, propaganda, and coercion,” said Pompeo.

“Beijing’s atrocities in Xinjiang represent an extreme affront to the Uyghurs, the people of China, and civilized people everywhere. We will not remain silent. If the Chinese Communist Party is allowed to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against its own people, imagine what it will be emboldened to do to the free world, in the not-so-distant future,” he said.

The Trump administration in recent months has cracked down on imports from China suspected to be produced with forced labor.

In August, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign stated that the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.

“The unspeakable oppression that Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have suffered at the hands of China’s authoritarian government is genocide and Joe Biden stands against it in the strongest terms,” said campaign spokesman Andrew Bates at that time.


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Biden taps supporter of contraceptive mandate to HHS position

January 19, 2021 CNA Daily News 12

Washington D.C., Jan 19, 2021 / 10:25 am (CNA).- President-elect Joe Biden will nominate a supporter of the contraceptive mandate to a top position at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he announced on Tuesday.

 

On Tuesday, Biden announced that he would nominate Dr. Rachel Levine, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who has served as Pennsylvania’s health secretary since 2017, to be HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. Before serving as Pennsylvania’s health secretary, Levine served as the state’s physician general.

 

Levine has been outspoken on social issues, supporting gender-transition surgery and the contraceptive mandate while opposing a proposed 20-week abortion ban.

 

Levine’s nomination to HHS, along with that of Health Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, signals that social issues could be priorities at the agency for the next several years. These might include pro-LGBTQ policies, funding of abortion providers, and religious freedom conflicts with Catholic organizations.

 

Regarding the Obama-era HHS contraceptive mandate, Levine in 2017 called it “immoral and unethical” to allow for religious exemptions to the mandate. Hundreds of non-profits and businesses—including the Little Sisters of the Poor—had objected to the mandate and the Obama administration’s opt-out process for objecting non-profits.

 

After the Trump administration announced in 2017 that religious employers and other organizations morally opposed to the contraceptive mandate could receive exemptions from it, Levine issued a sharp statement in opposition.

 

“It is immoral and unethical to give any employer the ability to take away access to health care from an entire gender,” Levine said as Pennsylvania’s acting health secretary, in 2017. “We cannot allow women’s health to be reduced to one issue or be jeopardized in any way.”

 

Levine also wrote an op-ed against the Trump administration’s reversal of Obama-era rules on transgender accommodation.

 

In Feb., 2017, the Trump administration said it would stop defending the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy in court; the policy had directed schools to allow students to use gender-specific bathrooms according to their gender identity, and not their biological sex.

 

In an op-ed for the Patriot-News, Levine wrote that “[t]he decision by the Trump administration to roll back the most basic protections for transgender and gender expansive youth is heartbreaking.”

 

“To Pennsylvania’s transgender and gender expansive youth and their families who are worried or concerned, I want you to know that Governor Wolf’s administration has your back,” Pennsylvania’s then-physician general wrote.

 

In 2016, Levine spoke out against a 20-week abortion ban that criminalized abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in cases where the mother’s life was in danger. The bill also banned the “dilation and evacuation” abortion procedure.

 

Levine said at the time that the bill “punishes women whose pregnancies have complications.”

 

“Women and their families, when faced with a devastating diagnosis of a significant fetal anomaly, have the right to make the decision which is appropriate for them, in consultation with their doctors,” Levine said.

 

Levine’s family moved their mother out of a personal care home early in the COVID-19 pandemic, because of the high spread of the virus; the decision invited some media scrutiny.

 

Levine was also questioned for the state’s policy of requiring nursing homes to accept recovering COVID patients from hospitals, although the state health secretary responded that asymptomatic staff at the homes—not patients discharged from hospitals—were the primary spreaders of the virus there.

 

If Levine is confirmed to HHS, along with Becerra, they together could craft policy to influence a number of issues including abortion, gender-transition surgery, and the contraceptive mandate.  

 

While California’s attorney general, Becerra fought aggressively in favor of an abortion coverage mandate that religious employers were not exempt from, and continued the prosecution of pro-life activist David Daleiden.

 

If confirmed as Health Secretary, Becerra—a Catholic—could reignite a number of Obama-era policies that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic groups were opposed to.

 

These might include resurrecting court battles with the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic groups that opposed the Obama administration’s procedure by which to “opt out” of the contraceptive mandate. The groups said that the policy still required them to provide coverage for contraceptives through their employee health plans, which they morally objected to.

 

Other HHS policies could include re-imposing the full transgender mandate—a requirement that doctors perform gender-transition surgery upon the referral of a mental health professional—and various requirements of religious groups that receive HHS grants, such as adoption agencies having to match children with same-sex couples.


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Bishop calls for renewed fight against racism on MLK Day 

January 18, 2021 CNA Daily News 2

CNA Staff, Jan 18, 2021 / 02:49 am (CNA).- As Catholics and other Americans observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, they should renew their commitment to fighting racism, said Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington.

“Through Dr. King’s witness and the power of his echoing words, he championed the inherent God-given dignity of all persons, particularly those subjected to bigotry and prejudice,” Burbidge said in a Jan. 15 statement.

“In his courageous fight against racism and bigotry, Dr. King relied upon faith and prayer. Hope and transformative love were central to his message, as he reminded us, ‘hate is too great a burden to bear.’”

Unfortunately, the bishop said, bigotry is still prevalent today, noting that the “sin of racism continues to affect men, women and children in communities across the nation.”

The Virginia General Assembly this week discussed a resolution that would declare institutional racism to be a public health crisis in the state. It was first introduced by Delegate Lashrecse D. Aird (D-Petersburg), during a special session in August, but the topic was postponed until the regular session on Wednesday.

If passed, the resolution would permanently establish the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, expand the power of Virginia’s Department of Health’s Office of Health Equity, and launch anti-racism training for all state elected officials and employees.

Thirty states, including North Carolina, West Virginia, and Maryland, have declared racism to be a public health crisis.

Bishop Burbidge said the diocese has worked to fight racism through prayer, education, and action. He pointed to the diocese’s recent creation of an Advisory Council on Racism.

The council, he said, “works to identify how instances of racism, prejudice and bias have impacted individuals and communities in the Diocese and to develop a plan to bring about positive change in light of the Gospel and the teachings of our Faith.”

“As we work to address this evil, we must remember that what we ultimately seek is a genuine conversion of hearts that will compel change,” the bishop added.

“Together, let us pray that those harboring the burden of hate yield to the Prince of Peace, the source of salvation and love, Jesus Christ.”

 


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Catholic theater company launches radio plays, with theme of quarantine

January 17, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Denver Newsroom, Jan 17, 2021 / 02:00 am (CNA).- For decades, radio was Americans’ primary source of news and entertainment, before being largely superseded by television, and eventually the internet. 

Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, radio theater has returned— with the goal of conveying Catholic themes in highly-produced, entertaining, 10-minute packages. 

The Merry Beggars is a Catholic theater company based in Manhattan. Peter Atkinson, a stage actor and CEO of the Merry Beggars, banded together with several fellow actors to help found the nonprofit in 2019. 

Atkinson described The Merry Beggar’s mission as bringing together “professional artists who are excellent at their craft and seeking to tell stories for the glory of God.”

As anyone who has worked in the entertainment industry knows, it can be very difficult for writers to get their work produced, especially when it comes to films, plays, or television. And this is especially true for works that convey an authentic Christian message. 

Similarly, it can be difficult for Catholic actors to make their way in the entertainment industry— a world in which many projects may clash with a Catholic worldview.

“I’ve seen so many Christian and Catholic artists want to go into the acting industry and the entertainment industry, and it’s a really hard industry to make your way in,” Atkinson told CNA, adding that he knows many Catholics who have given up acting careers, or have abandoned their faith in the hopes of advancing in the industry. 

“One of the things that I’m really passionate about is supporting Catholic artists and Christian artists to make work that can transform our culture,” he said. 

Before the pandemic took hold, The Merry Beggars were planning numerous in-person events for 2020, including a conference for high school drama teachers and local events for artists in New York and Washington D.C. 

When lockdowns and restrictions made in-person events impossible— or at least far less popular— Atkinson said he and the nonprofit’s board of directors set about adjusting their plans, while keeping their mission the same. 

Atkinson has long been a lover of radio theater, having grown up listening to classic programs such as “The Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow.” So, he suggested the idea of producing radio plays as a way to support actors and writers while theaters remained closed amid the lockdowns. 

Moreover, they decided to make the initiative a competition, calling on prospective playwrights to send in scripts for 10-minute radio plays. The plots would be entirely up to the playwrights, prompted only by the theme: “quarantine.”

Atkinson said the idea for the theme came from one of the board members, a Catholic priest, who noted that some aspects of quarantine are similar to cloistered religious life.  

The response to the contest was almost overwhelming, he said— they received over 120 submissions, from all over the world, even as far away as Kenya. Atkinson assembled a team of 37 judges to pore over the scripts and select their top three. 

The plots of the 10-minute plays, despite all being inspired by “quarantine,” varied widely— from allegorical retellings of Adam and Eve in the garden, to astronauts conversing on the International Space Station, to something as simple as two young people’s inner monologues during lockdown in New York. 

While not every play they received was good enough to produce, Atkinson said it was so difficult to choose just the top three, they committed to producing their favorite twelve. As of Jan. 2021, The Merry Beggars have released three plays so far.  

The first play The Merry Beggars released is titled “Do You Remember? With Relaxabot 938.” The play features a fictional radio broadcast within a post-apocalyptic soundscape.

The latest play to be released, “I Do Like The Rain,” follows the interplay between members of a young family stuck in a late-night traffic jam, and touches on themes of resentment and grace. 

“It’s a really simple script, but it’s really beautiful,” Atkinson commented.

“The script is about a husband and wife’s interior journey to some old family wounds that they have, and then the beginning of a journey of healing.”

Atkinson worked with the artists whose plays they picked, to hear from them about their ideas for how to turn the script into a compelling radio play. 

Producing the plays presented technical challenges, as the voice actors they selected— out of many hundreds of auditions— each had to record their own voices in home studios, with the editors stitching the dialogue together in post-production. 

Atkinson coached the voice actors as they were recording, observing and offering direction to the actors via video chat. 

Despite the asynchronous nature of the recording process, Atkinson’s coaching and careful editing helped make the dialogue sound natural. 

The setting of “I Do Like the Rain” features a family of four— including two child actors— in a minivan, none of whom ever actually occupied the same space during the recording process. 

“Even though they were never in the same room and they’re recorded at completely different hours of the day, it sounds like they’re all in the same minivan together. And it’s just magical to me,” Atkinson said. 

Atkinson says they plan to release a new Quarantine Play every month, along with smaller plays called The Dailies. He said The Merry Beggars hope to eventually put on workshops for Catholics looking to connect with entertainment industry professionals, in New York City and beyond. 

“To me, the way that you heal the culture is you tell the truth about the human person. And the truth about the human person is that we’re made for God,” Atkinson said. 

“I think these stories do a really tender and beautiful job of touching upon our need for God and how, in quarantine, that quiet desire for God can surface in a really beautiful, tender and fragile way.”

Kate Olivera contributed to this report. 

This interview originally aired on Catholic News Agency’s podcast, CNA Newsroom. It has been adapted for print. Listen to the interview below, beginning at 18:40. 

CNA Newsroom · Ep. 89: Taking Back the Year

 


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