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US Catholic bishops demand peace replace violence after protesters disrupt Capitol

January 6, 2021 CNA Daily News 11

Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2021 / 05:57 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops strongly condemned pro-Donald Trump protesters’ incursion that penetrated the Capitol Building Wednesday as Congress debated the certification of the presidential election results, leading to the evacuation of lawmakers and the deadly shooting of one protester by law enforcement.

“I join people of good will in condemning the violence today at the United States Capitol,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Jan. 6. “This is not who we are as Americans. I am praying for members of Congress and Capitol staff and for the police and all those working to restore order and public safety.”

“The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of this great nation,” he added. “In this troubling moment, we must recommit ourselves to the values and principles of our democracy and come together as one nation under God.”

In his own statement, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco added: “To attack the U.S. Capitol to express your fear that democracy has been denied is wrong, and also counterproductive. Doubts about free and fair elections cannot be redressed by violence against democratic institutions.”

“To the deaths from a pandemic, and destruction wreaked on people’s livelihoods, we do not need to add an attempted civil war. I called for an end to violence in the streets when it happened this summer. I call on every American of good will to denounce this violence against our nation’s Capitol now.”

“May the Prince of Peace put an end to this strife, and bring healing and constructive criticism in the place of mob rule. And may God bless America,” the archbishop said.

Gomez entrusted the country to the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking, “May she guide us in the ways of peace, and obtain for us wisdom and the grace of a true patriotism and love of country.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Twitter account said, “Lord God of peace, hear our prayer.”

It also broadcast a prayer from the National Shrine: “Let us pray for peace in our nation. Mary Immaculate, pray for us!”

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore called the protests “shocking and unlawful.”

“We fervently pray for peace and for God’s protection over our country, our lawmakers, and all those in harm’s way this terrible day. May peace-loving Americans of good will throughout the United States come together to engender peace, reconciliation and healing in our wounded and broken nation, which remains and must always be one, under God.”

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn called for prayer for the nation “on this unprecedented day of national chaos, so that we can return to the rule of law.”

“We are better than this. We as a people have always respected our differences. The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy,” he said.

 

Please join me in praying for our Nation on this unprecedented day of national chaos, so that we can return to the rule of law. We are better than this. We as a people have always respected our differences. The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy.

— Bishop DiMarzio (@BpDiMarzio) January 6, 2021

 

The protests seeking to overturn the presidential election results followed various claims that the presidential ballot results in some states were fraudulent. Some protesters appeared to think there was still a path for President Donald Trump to win the presidency, despite presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden’s decisive electoral college victory.

More than 150 Republican lawmakers sought to question the legitimacy of election results in some states, but Vice President Mike Pence, who can vote to break ties in the U.S. Senate, refused any suggestion that he act to block certification of the election.

Trump himself has stoked claims that the election was stolen and has not conceded, even in the same statements in which he has told protesters to go home. Twitter has started to remove some of his posts, and Facebook has removed some of his videos.

In a Wednesday morning appearance at a rally outside the White House, Trump encouraged supporters to march to the capitol. Some protesters clashed with police, while others intimidated capitol guards into retreating without significant contact.

Some wore “Make America Great” hats or other regalia associated with Trump’s campaign. Many carried U.S. flags or Donald Trump flags and some carried Confederate flags.
Some protesters attacked news media, while dozens of others pressed forward into the Capitol Building in defiance of capitol police, breaking windows and forcing open doors.

Lawmakers took shelter, sometimes in their offices, and put on gas masks after security used gas masks in their defense, the Associated Press said. Protesters occupied the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chambers of Congress.

Critics of the president, including some Republicans, blamed him for inciting the protesters.

At least one bomb was found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee in D.C., at least one other device was discovered on the U.S. Capitol grounds, and a suspicious package at the Democratic National Committee headquarters was under investigation, the New York Times reported.

Pence called out the national guard to support law enforcement in the capital. After the capitol building was secured, Pelosi recalled lawmakers to certify the election results.

Another bishop who spoke out against the protests was Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport.
“There are few words that can describe the shock I feel to see our Capitol Building occupied by violent rioters. As Americans, we should be deeply disturbed to see an important symbol of freedom and liberty in our nation violated in such a way. Our nation is better than that,” he said on Twitter.

 

There are few words that can describe the shock I feel to see our Capitol Building occupied by violent rioters. As Americans, we should be deeply disturbed to see an important symbol of freedom and liberty in our nation violated in such a way. Our nation is better than that. 1/4

— Bishop Frank Caggiano (@BishopCaggiano) January 7, 2021

 

“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most important and revered aspects of our democracy,” he continued. “We must recommit ourselves to the values we hold dear as Americans: democracy, freedom, and peace.”

“As people of faith, we condemn violence in all its forms as a moral betrayal of the Gospel,” he said. “We also know that our nation needs prayer, now more than ever, so that we may always remain one nation, under God.”

The bishop asked people to join in prayer for the U.S. “during this unprecedented and frightening time in our history.”

“Let us pray for peace in our communities, in our capital, in our Country, but most of all, in our own hearts,” he said.

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler invoked the feast of the Epiphany, saying, “We pray for peace and for Christ to shine in this traditional feast of the Epiphany. It is a sad day for our nation but God is with us,” he said. “We have to turn to God and really remember that we claim to be a nation under God.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago called the event a “national disgrace”, adding, “We pray for peace at this bracing moment in U.S. history, a history that has been marked by one of democracy’s greatest virtues—the peaceful and orderly transition of power.”

The incident at the Capitol follows significant disruptions and unrest across the U.S. last year.

The death of George Floyd, a Black man, while he was being detained by Minneapolis police helped spark nationwide protests for weeks. Protesters often peacefully advocated against police brutality and for racial justice under the motto “Black Lives Matter.” Some of these protests turned violent, causing billions of dollars in damage and several deaths.


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News Briefs

As LA County limits emergency care amid COVID surge, ethicists weigh in

January 5, 2021 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2021 / 12:25 am (CNA).- Los Angeles County has announced it is limiting non-COVID emergency care, due to hospitals having reached a “point of crisis” during the pandemic, promoting ethicists to discuss whether the act is justified.

On Monday, the Emergency Medical Services Agency for Los Angeles County issued two directives limiting emergency care during the pandemic, because of a spike in COVID hospitalizations.

One directive stated that emergency medical personnel should not transport patients who suffered cardiac arrest to the hospital, if they could not be revived in the field. The directive was given “due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 receiving hospitals.”

Another directive stated that supplemental oxygen should only be given to patients with less than 90% oxygen saturation due to “the acute need to conserve oxygen.”

The actions were taken as the number of COVID hospitalizations is expected to spike after the Christmas holiday season, according to the Los Angeles Times.

One medical ethicist told CNA that the county had to make a difficult decision in extraordinary circumstances.

“I think they have gone about a very difficult decision in a reasonable way,” said Dr. Barbara Golder, staff member with the Catholic Medical Association, in an interview with CNA.

With the virus spreading around the country, many local health systems are seriously burdened or at capacity, Golder said. “I’m inclined to believe that this is, in fact, a very extraordinary circumstance,” she said in reference to Los Angeles.

The county’s director of health services, Dr. Christina Ghaly, stated on Monday that many area hospitals “have reached a point of crisis and are having to make very tough decisions about patient care,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

She added that the current numbers of COVID cases in the county are still reflective of the post-Thanksgiving surge with a post-Christmas surge yet to come—a point that Golder also made.

“It’s not going to get better,” she said of an anticipated post-Christmas surge of virus cases looming. “It’s really bad right now.”

Los Angeles county has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases since the end of October. More than 9,100 new COVID cases were reported on Monday, according to county health data. In some areas, ICU bed shortages have been a concern.

There have been a total of 10,850 deaths and more than 827,000 confirmed COVID cases overall in Los Angeles County, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins. While the number of reported cases is the highest by far among U.S. counties—Los Angeles is the most populous county in the U.S.—the rate of 8,189 infections per 100,000 residents is high, but is topped by many other counties around the country.

However, Charles Camosy—a theology professor at Fordham University—emphasized that care is being limited in Los Angeles due to an expectation of a further COVID surge, and not because hospitals are already overwhelmed.

“To be clear, they are *not* overwhelmed now. This directive is in *anticipation* of having traditional capacity (no hospital ships, no converted convention centers, no cooperating facilities in other counties) overwhelmed,” he tweeted.

Ghaly, explaining the county’s policy of not transporting cardiac arrest victims who had not been resuscitated in the field, said that the county was “emphasizing the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes.”

“We knew that already and we just don’t want to impact our hospitals,” Ghaly said.

Camosy noted that “[t]he phrase ‘poor outcomes’ is quite suggestive,” adding, “it is likely that [Ghaly] and others mean that patients who are likely to survive cardiac arrest for the during of an ambulance ride are likely to be disabled in ways which lead them to judge that a limited number of beds should be given to able-bodied patients.”

“If there are better explanations for this policy, I’d genuinely like to hear them,” Camosy added.

However, Golder said that it is not necessarily unethical to limit care for patients with a low expectation of survival—if the situation is one of true “triage” where demand for care is great and resources are limited, and as long as patients are not denied care on the basis of age or disability.

According to studies, patients suffering cardiac arrest who are taken quickly to a hospital still have around only a 5% chance to survive and eventual discharge, she said. During a pandemic, they would essentially be competing with COVID patients for limited health care resources.

While this population may be mostly elderly, she said, it could also include younger patients—and the county’s policy did not explicitly discriminate against the elderly.

“Nobody likes to see these things happen,” she said. “There’s always a limit on what we have available, and sometimes our demand exceeds it. And we’re just there, we’re there all over the country.”

In the spring of 2020, Camosy was one of three scholars to warn against health care triage plans that explicitly discriminated against the disabled.

As doctors in various jurisdictions were considering how to ration health care if hospitals were overwhelmed with an influx of COVID patients, Camosy was joined by Princeton law professor Robert George and Harvard sociology professor Jacqueline Rivers in demanding that care not be denied patients on the basis of their age or disability.

Camosy warned that many state health officials, hospital heads, and leading doctors lack ethics training and make decisions on a utilitarian “quality-adjusted life years” approach that favors younger, healthier patients and discriminates against elderly and disabled patients.

“As somebody who has studied bioethics, and who is a professor of bioethics, I know the overwhelming majority of them have virtually no ethics training,” Camosy told CNA.


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No Picture
News Briefs

Abortion advocates push for big changes in 2021 under Biden administration 

January 5, 2021 CNA Daily News 1

CNA Staff, Jan 5, 2021 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- Looking ahead at 2021, abortion advocates are hoping the incoming presidential administration will bring policy changes and new personnel who are sympathetic to their goals.

“Planned Parenthood is committed to partnering with the Biden-Harris administration to ensure sexual and reproductive health doesn’t take a backseat in health policy and when making appointments,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a December 31 essay in Elle.

“On day one, we want Biden to issue an executive order that demonstrates the administration’s commitment to advancing health care access and rolling back harmful policies like the Title X gag rule, which has blocked patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers,” said Johnson.

The Title X “gag rule” is a Trump administration policy which prohibits the distribution of Title X funds to facilities which refer for abortion services or who provide abortion services.

Johnson called for the Biden-Harris administration to “make critical updates” to Title X, in order for more people to benefit from its funds. She did not elaborate in the essay as to what these “updates” would be.

“Finally, Planned Parenthood will continue to advocate for the appointment of diverse reproductive health champions to executive and judiciary vacancies,” said Johnson.

Johnson is hopeful that the Biden administration will repeal the Hyde Amendment “for good.” She called the Hyde Amendment, a 1977 law which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion services, “a discriminatory policy that blocks people who get their health insurance through Medicaid or other government-funded programs from accessing coverage for safe, legal abortion.”

President-elect Biden had previously supported the Hyde Amendment and voted for it numerous times throughout his time in the Senate. Over the course of a 24-hour period in June 2019, Biden changed course, following five decades of support for the policy, and announced that he was now in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris took credit for Biden’s abrupt about-face on the Hyde Amendment. In 2021, said Johnson, abortion advocates “must fight for policies that ensure every single person, regardless of their income or zip code, can actually access sexual and reproductive health care.”

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, had similar sentiment as Johnson. Speaking on a podcast, Hogue was concerned that the makeup of the Supreme Court could result in Roe v. Wade being overturned.

“We’re certainly preparing with our partners in the movement for [the overturning of Roe],” said Hogue. She said that much of her organization’s work recently “has been about making sure that we have what we call ‘islands of access’–blue states that are codifying the right to abortion, making sure that we have like practice in place where women can go.”

Many states, including New York, have moved to codify a right to have an abortion into state law. Should the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision be overturned, it would be up for states to decide their own abortion policies.

Hogue stated that she would support the creation of a “women’s health czar” in the upcoming administration. “It would send such a clear message that the terrible era that Trump ushered in is over,” said Hogue.

Biden, a Catholic, has previously pledged to codify the right to abortion into federal law.

“Number one, we don’t know exactly what [Justice Amy Coney Barrett] will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe, and what the only thing–the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land,” said Biden in October.

“That’s what I would do.”


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