US

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 05:35 pm (CNA).- After some caucus meetings at the Democratic National Convention omitted the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, the Knights of Columbus told CNA the words represent a fundamental American belief, and said the group is proud of its role in their addition to the pledge.

“The Knights of Columbus is proud of our instrumental role in persuading Congress to add the words ‘under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954,” Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson told CNA Aug. 20.

“Those words express a fundamental belief that we have held as a nation since our founding, that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights,” Anderson added.

Anderson’s remark came amid reports that at meetings held as part of the Democratic National Convention, delegates omitted the words “under God” as they led the Pledge of Allegiance. The omissions came during meetings of the DNC’s Muslim caucus and LGBTQ caucus.

The Pledge of Allegiance in its modern form was composed in 1892, and officially recognized by Congress in 1942. The Knights of Columbus were instrumental in encouraging that the words “under God” be officially adopted into the Pledge of Allegiance in the early 1950s.

Along with other groups, the Knights of Columbus advocated for inclusion of the phrase, and in early 1954, Congress passed a bill to do so. President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

“In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war,” Eisenhower said at the time.

The United States Flag Code contains the official text of the Pledge of Allegiance, and contains norms regarding the etiquette for display and care of the U.S. flag.

For his part, Anderson said the phrase reminds Americans of “a fundamental belief that we have held as a nation since our founding, as expressed by President John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural Address that our rights as Americans ‘come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.’”

 

[…]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 04:20 pm (CNA).- After its statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was beheaded, a California parish asked Catholics to pray for the vandal who desecrated the statue, along with another monument at the parish.

“It is heartbre… […]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Netflix has apologized after a poster advertising an upcoming film was accused of normalizing pedophilia. But one theologian told CNA that an apology for the image is not enough, and that the film itself sexualizes children.

The promotional material for the film provoked widespread criticism overnight on Aug. 19, with many claiming that the film’s promotional material appeared to sexualize children.

“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties,” Netflix’s official Twitter account tweeted on Thursday, August 20. 

“It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description,” said Netflix. 

The film, whose original French title “Mignonnes” was translated to “Cuties” for its American release, was released on April 1, 2020 in France. It is set to premiere on Netflix on September 9. 

The initial Netflix description of the film was “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.” 

The French-produced film features pre-teen girls involved in groups that perform sexualized dance routines.  

Twerking is a style of sexually provocative dance involving thrusting hip movements and suggestive stances. The dance style has been banned at several American high schools. 

The description has since been updated to “Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.” 

The “free-spirited dance crew” in the film is the titular “Cuties.” In the film, Amy is a Senegalese Muslim who lives with her mother and younger brothers in Paris. 

The original poster featured Amy, who is played by tween actress Fathia Youssouf, in a low squat position with her legs spread. She, and the other young actresses in the film, are pictured wearing dance costumes consisting of spandex “booty shorts” and cropped tops, and are all posed in a suggestive manner. 

The poster for the film has since been changed to an image of Youssouf looking over her shoulder. The original poster that accompanied the French release of the film featured the preteen actresses fully clothed. 

Dr. Chad Pecknold, a professor of theology at the Catholic University of America and the father of a six-year-old daughter, told CNA that he was disturbed by the initial advertisements for the film. 

“I was utterly shocked to see young girls just a bit older than my daughter in sexually suggestive poses,” said Pecknold.

“But my moral revulsion at what can only be the normalization of pedophilia only increased when I realized the producers claim to be criticizing the sexualization of children by, in fact, sexualizing children,” he added.

The director of the film, Maimouna Doucouré, said that she was inspired to make Cuties after noticing that some “very young girls” had hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. 

“There were no particular reasons [for the number of followers], besides the fact that they had posted sexy or at least revealing pictures: that is what had brought them this ‘fame,’” she said in an interview in August with CineEuropa.

“Today, the sexier and the more objectified a woman is, the more value she has in the eyes of social media. And when you’re 11, you don’t really understand all these mechanisms, but you tend to mimic, to do the same thing as others in order to get a similar result,” she said. 

She told CineEuropa that it is “urgent” that this matter be discussed, and that she thinks “a debate be had on the subject.” 

Pecknold disagrees that “Cuties” is the proper way to conduct a discussion on anything. 

“This is a rationale that only Jeffrey Epstein could love,” he told CNA.

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 03:13 pm (CNA).- Ukrainian Catholics in the US have donated more than $136,000 to assist the victims of the floods that have devastated western Ukraine.

The fundraising effort has been coordinated by Bishop Andriy Rabiy, auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Flooding in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi oblasts in late June hit some 300 towns, with at least as many miles of road damaged or destroyed. Gas supplies to some 10,000 people were disrupted.

“There is very little or no help received from the government. People really appreciate help they get from Caritas and our contributions and are amazed how quickly they receive that what they need,” Bishop Rabiy stated.

“In the Gospel, we hear the story of how Jesus multiplied the fishes and the loaves. He took five loaves and two fish, blessed, multiplied this small offering and fed over 5000 people. So it is with us. What we offer, Our Lord will bless and multiply to provide for the needs of those suffering from the destruction of this tragic flood,” said Bishop Rabiy, according to the statement.

“Your generous support will make a big difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in need. Thank you to each and every one of you for your contribution to this flood relief effort. We are most grateful and appreciative of your sacrificial giving.”

Bishop Rabiy told CNA that many people in the country already struggle with finances and poverty. He said the affected region in particular survives off of farming, or migration to other cities or countries.

“Overall in the country, they do have a huge economic hardship, but this region, in particular, that was hit by floods and mudslides, it’s a very poor region. There are very few jobs that people can find. They basically have to travel abroad or into other major cities in Ukraine to find a job and actually support their families,” he said.

Bishop Rabiy said that following the heavy rains, a majority of people have had their basements flooded, wiping out a large portion of their food supplies. He also said strong currents have forced large boulders onto people’s properties, which will need to be removed before farming continues.

He said it will be sometime before property owners can return to normal. It has been a high point of distress for the victims, he said, noting that farmers had taken out loans to fund their agriculture but now have no means to pay it back.

“For the occupants of the mountains, that’s where many mudslides took place, and basically that’s dirt with stones, sometimes as high as three, four feet, it actually came into people’s gardens,” he told CNA.

“Whatever they were growing this year, it’s all gone. It is going to take several years before they actually get back to normal,” he added. “I hear human stories how people try to commit suicide because they took on a loan … and now that everything is gone. That’s a very sad story and that happens too.”

He said the donations are issued on a person by person basis, trying to connect the individuals with the help they need to survive. He said the donations may go toward food, water, medicine, but it may also offer people grants to buy buildings supplies, furniture, and bedding prior to winter. He said families are entered into a database and organized by the greatest need.

Funds were given to the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk, and its suffragan eparchies of Chernivtsi and Kolomyia.

Bishop Rabiy expressed the importance of acts rooted in charity: “It is a part of our Christian matrix, I believe this is who we are, even if we open up the letters of Saint Paul, there he was asking people … to start putting something away because on the way back to Jerusalem he is going to take the gifts … for the starving people down in Jerusalem,” he told CNA.

[…]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- President Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday night that he was honored by a video describing him as “the most pro-gay president in American history.” The video stands in contrast to praise from the U.S. bishops for administration decisions related to the issues of transgenderism and conscience protection, and from the characterization of the president among many pro-LGBT groups.

The pro-LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans tweeted a video on Wednesday morning calling Trump “the most pro-gay president in American history,” to which Trump responded on Twitter that night, saying it was “My great honor!!!”

President @realDonaldTrump made history for #LGBT Americans — and nobody knows that better than @RichardGrenell. #GetOUTspoken pic.twitter.com/HJhY5kSuh0

— LogCabinRepublicans (@LogCabinGOP) August 19, 2020

Ric Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, appeared in the video endorsing Trump’s re-election. Grennel, who identified himself as “America’s first openly gay cabinet member,” said that the incumbent president “has done more to advance the rights of gays and lesbians in three years than Joe Biden did in 40-plus years in Washington.”

Before donning a rainbow-colored “Make America Great Again” hat, Grennell said in the video that “Donald Trump is the first president in American history to be pro-gay marriage from his first day in office.”

Biden, who officiated a same-sex wedding in 2016 while he was vice president, publicly assented to same-sex marriage in 2012, after he had already been vice president for four years, prodding President Barack Obama to do the same just days later. 

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexual acts are “sins gravely contrary to chastity,” those who identify as gay or lesbian should “be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

The Church also teaches that marriage is an institution of natural law and exists between one man and one woman. 

In 2003, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained that “The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

During Biden’s decades in Congress, he supported the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which excluded men and women identifying as gay or lesbian from the U.S. military. He also voted for the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Clinton, which recognized legal marriage as between one man and one woman. 

While Biden was vice president, however, the Justice Department stopped defending Section 3 of DOMA in court, and Obama signed a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

In the video on Wednesday, Grenell criticized Biden’s changing stances on marriage, saying that “now that we’ve made progress, Joe Biden has changed his mind.” Meanwhile, he called Trump “the strongest ally that gay Americans have ever had in the White House.”

On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump said that people should be free to use whatever public bathroom they wish to, regardless of their biological sex. Shortly after his election as president, he said he was “fine” with same-sex marriage as the law of the land.

In his 2019 speech to the UNGA, the president said that the U.S. stands in “solidarity with LGBTQ people who live in countries that  make homosexual activity a crime.

Grennell said that Trump “publicly challenged the 69 countries who make being gay a crime” in his 2019 speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). He also cited the U.S. fight against the Lebanese Shi’ite Islamic party Hezbollah, recognized by the U.S. as a terror organization and which Grenell called “homophobic and barbaric.” He also noted the administration’s hardline stance against the Iranian regime, known for its public executions of people with same-sex attraction.

Contrasting the assessment of the Log Cabin Republicans, the head of the pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign has called Trump the “worst president ever” on LGBT issues.

Trump’s health department has rolled back the Obama-era mandate that doctors provide gender-transition surgery upon request; a federal judge put a temporary halt on implementation of the rule on Monday. That decision was praised by the U.S. bishops’ conference.

In June, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch—nominated by Trump—sided with the Court’s majority and ruled that federal protections against sex discrimination also apply in cases of someone’s sexual orientation and gender identity. After the Court handed his administration another defeat, this time on the DACA immigration program, Trump blasted the “horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court.”

Pope Francis has spoken out repeatedly against gender theory and ideology. Speaking at the United Nations in 2015, the pope urged world leaders to embrace a consistent stance on respect for life and the created world and “recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman, and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions.” 

The pope has also called gender theory “evil” and “dangerous,” saying blurring and erasing the natural distinctions between men and women would “destroy at its roots” God’s creation of humanity in “diversity, distinction.” 

“It would make everything homogenous, neutral,” Francis was quoted saying in a book published earlier this year. “It is an attack on difference, on the creativity of God and on men and women.”

On June 10, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education released a document which included a sweeping denunciation of so-called gender theory and the “radical separation between gender and sex, with the former having priority over the later.”

“In all such [gender] theories, from the most moderate to the most radical, there is agreement that one’s gender ends up being viewed as more important than being of male or female sex,” the Congregation for Catholic Education wrote in the document entitled “Male and Female He Created Them.”

“The effect of this move is chiefly to create a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism, and secondarily a juridical revolution, since such beliefs claim specific rights for the individual and across society.”

Trump’s administration has also not filled a special envoy position at the State Department tasked with advising the secretary on promoting LGBT ideology abroad; the Obama administration was the first to create such a position at State, and Biden has said he will “immediately appoint” a special envoy.

In 2017, Trump issued an executive order on promoting religious freedom as a policy of his administration. Later that fall, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued guidance for other federal agencies, identifying various statutory religious freedom protections. The U.S. bishops’ conference “commended” the administration for its conscience protections in that case.

In one prominent case of a religious freedom claim versus an anti-discrimination measure—Fulton v. City of Philadelphia—the Justice Department sided with the Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, saying the U.S. “has a substantial interest in the preservation of the free exercise of religion.”

In that case, the city terminated its contract with Catholic Social Services unless it agreed to match foster children with same-sex couples. The administration, in its friend-of-the-court brief in June, said the city’s rules “reflect unconstitutional hostility toward Catholic Social Services’ religious beliefs.”

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 01:57 pm (CNA).- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has denied wrongdoing following allegations that Muslim detainees at a Miami facility are regularly forced to choose between spoiled halal meals and eating pork in violation of their religious beliefs.

“By habitually serving Muslim detainees pork and spoiled, expired, and cold halal meals, ICE officers at Krome have violated Muslim detainees’ rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” says an August 19 letter to officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The letter was sent by attorneys for Americans for Immigrant Justice, Muslim Advocates, and King & Spalding LLP.

The groups say they have received “alarming reports” of Muslim detainees at the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida being repeatedly served pork throughout the coronavirus pandemic. For the several dozen Muslims housed at the facility, eating pork is forbidden.

The prepackaged halal meals offered as an alternative are expired and rotten, posing a health risk, the advocacy groups say.

“In recent months, Muslim detainees who have eaten those spoiled halal meals have reported experiencing stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea,” they say in their letter.

An ICE spokesman denied the allegation, telling CNA in an August 20 email, “Any claim that ICE denies reasonable and equitable opportunity for persons to observe their religious dietary practices is false.”

“ICE’s Performance Based National Detention Standards cover all aspects of detention, to include reasonable accommodation of religious dietary practices,” the spokesman said, pointing to the agency’s national detention standards, which include policies on religious diet accommodations.

Those policies state, “All facilities shall provide detainees requesting a religious diet a reasonable and equitable opportunity to observe their religious dietary practice, within the constraints of budget limitations and the security and orderly running of the facility, by offering a common fare menu. While each request for religious diet accommodation is to be determined on a case-by-case basis, ICE anticipates that facilities will grant these requests unless an articulable reason exists to disqualify someone for religious accommodation or the detainee’s practice poses a significant threat to the secure and orderly operation of the facility.”

However, the immigrant advocacy groups say they have received reports that the practice of offering only inedible, cold, and expired halal meals is widespread at the Krome facility.

“Substituting pork for inedible, expired food is offensive and constitutionally impermissible,” their letter charges.

It says the problem of offering expired halal meals has been ongoing since 2017, but has been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. While detainees could previously choose their meals at a cafeteria, the facility has now moved to all pre-plated meals. About 2-3 times per week, these meals contain pork, which the Muslim detainees cannot eat, the letter says.

It also charges that staff members at the facility have failed to respond to detainees’ complaints about the problem.

“In the face of the Krome staff’s indifference and inaction, Muslim detainees are left with three choices during this pandemic: eat meals that contain pork, eat meals that are spoiled, or eat nothing at all. Consequently, Muslim detainees have been forced to choose between their sincere religious beliefs and their health.”

The letter requests a response within 14 days. The immigrant advocacy groups threatened to pursue further legal action if they do not receive a response.

“As part of ensuring that Muslim detainees are provided with safe to eat, religiously compliant meals, immigration authorities must serve unexpired halal plates to Muslim detainees at Krome and all other ICE facilities,” the letter says.

“Barring the availability of halal meals, ICE must ensure that each meal at each ICE-run facility includes sufficient plates without pork or contaminated by pork so that each Muslim detainee can exercise their constitutional and statutory rights to adhere to a diet consonant with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The advocacy groups are also calling for greater personnel training on religious freedom and accommodations.

“ICE and DHS must more effectively monitor their staff to ensure that COVID-19 does not become license for ICE to violate the religious rights of its Muslim detainees,” their letter says.

Montse Alvarado, executive director of religious liberty law firm Becket, said the claims against ICE, if true, are an example of the problems that arise “when people think freedom of worship is the same as freedom of religion.”

“The American promise of freedom of religion is more than that, and religion happens outside of the four walls of a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque all the time– as we have witnessed in this pandemic,” Alvarado told CNA in an email.

“You bring your conscience with you wherever you go; it’s part of who you are no matter what situation you are in. The Constitution protects the right to the free exercise of religion, and the government has an obligation to respect that.”

 

[…]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada has agreed to pay more than $200,000 to resolve claims that some of its former employees fraudulently administered community service grants in 2014 and 2015.

“Our organization took swift action to investigate the irregularities and to self-report through the proper channels,” Deacon Thomas Roberts, president of the organization and a cleric of the Diocese of Las Vegas, stated, according to the AP.

He added that Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada now has “additional safeguards to protect against the possibility of similar future happenings.”

Dn. Roberts said that as the settlement of $206,368.35 was covered by insurance, it “will not have any impact on the services Catholic Charities provides.”

The settlement is related to claims that in 2014 and 2015 employees of Catholic Charities who oversaw programs that placed senior volunteers with youths and with other seniors falsified records. The volunteers received small stipends for their time, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The employees also directed recipients to falsify the records, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said, “leading to CNCS grant funds being used to pay stipends for hours that were never actually worked, were in violation of program requirements, or were inflated.”

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada discovered the fraud, terminated the employees who had committed it, and disclosed the problem to the CNCS. The US attorney’s office added that Catholic Charities “cooperated fully in the United States’ investigation of its administration of these grants.”

The settlement did not determine liability, nor did Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada admit wrongdoing.

US Attorney for the District of Nevada Nicholas A. Trutanich said Aug. 19 that “each day, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada feeds the hungry, provides shelter for the homeless, and supports families and seniors in need of assistance. The federal government relies on its non-profit partners to help ensure that federal grant funds are being used to assist their communities. Today’s settlement is a reminder that everyone receiving federal grant funds must adhere to grant compliance requirements and self-report misuse of federal grant funds, as Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada did here.”

Deborah Jeffrey, inspector general of the CNCS, commented that “Catholic Charities acted responsibly upon discovering fraud, promptly reported the misconduct, cooperated actively with the investigation and willingly made the taxpayers whole.”

Trutanich, along with the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, William McSwain, commended Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada “for promptly reporting these issues when they were discovered” and for its cooperation with the government’s investigation.

“We hope this settlement will serve as a message to other senior managers to be vigilant in overseeing government-funded programs and to ensure that their employees do not attempt to conceal any non-compliance. All organizations accepting federal funds should take their responsibility to the American taxpayers seriously to come forward promptly and cooperate fully if they discover that they have not lived up to their promises.”

The case was begun as part of a focus on grant fraud by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

[…]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the Trump administration’s efforts to tie U.S. aid to pro-life policy on Thursday, following the release of a report indicating widespread complia… […]

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Former president Barack Obama and Sen. Kamala Harris both spoke on the importance of values and faith during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, but did not address policies that challenge the religious liberties of Catholics and other believers. 

Obama, who spoke first Aug. 19, used his speech to stress the obligations of the presidency to protect all people, and to endorse former vice president Joe Biden’s campaign to unseat President Donald Trump.

Biden, Obama said, “made me a better president — and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country.” 

According to the former president, Trump has “shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.” 

“At minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us–regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have–or who we voted for,” said Obama. 

Obama lamented “Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped.” 

The 44th president’s call to protect freedom of worship stood in contrast to several policies initiated during his two terms in office.

In 2012, numerous Catholic and Christian groups, including the religious order the Little Sisters of the Poor, filed suit against the Obama administration, alleging that their religious freedom was violated by the contraception mandate that was added to the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor in June 2014 in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. 

The Supreme Court once again ruled in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor in 2020. Following that decision, Biden, a Catholic, pledged to remove their court-ordered exemption if he is elected president. 

In his speech Wednesday, Obama credited past generations who experienced discrimination and hardship as examples of perseverence and belief in American ideals and values. 

“And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work,” he said. “We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life.”

During Obama’s presidency, the IRS improperly audited dozens of conservative organizations, and issued an apology in 2017 for its use of “heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays” to those organizations. 

Also on Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris formally accepted her nomination as candidate for vice president, to close the third night of the virtual DNC. 

Harris said her mother, who immigrated to the United States from India, the values she lives by and remains committed to. 

“To the Word that teaches me to walk by faith, and not by sight. And to a vision passed on through generations of Americans–one that Joe Biden shares,” she said. “A vision of our nation as a beloved community, where we all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.” 

This vision, said Harris, is of, “a country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth, deserving of compassion, dignity and respect.” 

Harris, who supports federal funding for abortion, was sued by pro-life pregnancy centers in 2015 after she, as California’s attorney general, sponsored a law that required pregnancy centers to provide information about where to acquire an abortion. The law was struck down. 

“Make no mistake, the road ahead will not be not easy. We will stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths. And we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us,” Harris said. 

“We believe that our country—all of us, will stand together for a better future. We already are.”

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Aug 20, 2020 / 10:52 am (CNA).-  

Sister Simone Campbell, who is set to offer a prayer at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, has declined to take a stand on the morality of abortion protections, and a CNA examination finds donors to her organization, Network Lobby, have links to pro-abortion rights advocacy.

Asked Aug. 19 whether her organization opposes the legal protection of abortion, Campbell told CNA, “That is not our issue. That is not it. It is above my pay grade.” 

“It’s not the issue that we work on. I’m a lawyer. I would have to study it more intensely than I have,” Campbell added.

Campbell, 74, is a member and past general director of the Sisters of Social Service, a Catholic religious community. She is the executive director of the Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, and received her law degree from the University of California-Davis School of Law in 1977.

During a 2016 interview with Democracy Now, Campbell said more directly that “From my perspective, I don’t think it’s a good policy to outlaw abortion.”

“Our agenda is the economic justice issues,” she told CNA this week. “As the issues of economic justice mean, as Pope Francis talks about so often, the capacity for families to be able to support themselves, to be able to have a roof on their head. A radical thought is that they ought to be able to earn enough from one job to both have time for leisure for a family together as well the capacity to save for the future.”

Campbell is scheduled to deliver the invocation Thursday at the Democratic National Convention. The convention’s announcement cited her group’s work on economic justice, health care, immigration reform, and voter turnout as well as its “Nuns on the Bus” tour.

The Associated Press describes Campbell as a longtime political ally of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Biden, a Catholic, has distanced himself from past support for some restrictions on abortion. He has said he will back legal abortion and funding for abortion providers, as well as regulations requiring Catholic employers like the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for contraception in employee health plans.

The economic agenda of Network Lobby, Campbell told CNA, is “more aligned with Democratic platforms” but the group considers itself “an equal opportunity annoyer” that lobbies members of both political parties.

“We don’t focus on reproductive rights, we focus on trying to ensure life for everyone. As Pope Francis says ‘equally sacred is the care for the born’,” Campbell said.

Campbell was partially quoting Pope Francis’ 2018 apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate in which the pope stated “Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development.”

The pope added that the lives of the poor, the destitute, the abandoned, the infirm, the elderly, and others are “equally sacred.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation.”

Campbell said it is not Network Lobby’s mission to be “in the fight for Roe v. Wade,” the Supreme Court decision that mandated legal abortion nationwide. While she agreed that the dignity of life is inviolable from conception, she added “I’m so tired. How long have we fought over Roe v. Wade?”

“Our economic agenda is to ensure that everyone can flourish, that all life can flourish, and that we can care for our earth,” she said. “Our niche is economic justice.”

Campbell rejected any suggestion her approach might undermine efforts to secure legal protections for the unborn.

“We work for the Pregnant Women Support Act, funding for prenatal care, women’s infants and children funding, making sure pregnant women get the care that they need,” she said. She said there is crossover in ensuring health care for pregnant women, adequate nutrition, and adequate housing capacity “to carry the fetus to term.”

Asked whether her group works with the Democrats for Life of America, Campbell replied: “No. They’re not working on our economic agenda.”

When CNA noted that Democrats for Life has worked on shared issues like paid family leave, she added “But they’re not part of the coalitions we work on. They’re not a lobby, they’re a policy group,” she said.

On Monday Kristen Day, Democrats for Life executive director, said that for the first time at a Democratic National Convention, the pro-life caucus has not been officially recognized at the 2020 convention.

Asked whether her approach might interfere with right-to-life efforts, Campbell was skeptical.

“I don’t believe we have that much power,” she said. “We are a small operation.”

The 2019 tax forms for NETWORK Lobby reported just over $1 million in revenue, compared to $1.2 million in 2018. Funds came overwhelmingly from contributions and grants.

By comparison, the National Right to Life Committee reported about $4.1 million in total revenue in its 2018-2019 fiscal year, compared to $2.8 million in the prior fiscal year. Its political action committee, the National Right to Life Victory Fund, spent about $1.2 million in 2018. The Susan B. Anthony List pro-life advocacy group reported about $12 million in its 2018 fiscal year.

According to CNA’s review of foundation grants to Network Lobby, a review which has not accounted for a majority of the group’s funds, Campbell’s organization has taken grants from major funders who also focus on abortion rights.

From 2012 to 2015 the Ford Foundation gave three grants totaling $350,000 to the Network Education Program to train faith leaders and to elevate their voices regarding “federal budget and tax debates and on policies affecting low- and middle-income populations.”

Cecile Richards, who headed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 2006 through 2018, has been a member of the Ford Foundation’s 15-person board of trustees since 2010. Ford Foundation president Darren Walker was a longtime member of the board of the Arcus Foundation, which has funded pro-abortion groups, LGBT advocacy within Christian denominations, and efforts to limit religious freedom in cases where it conflicts with abortion rights and LGBT causes.

In response to a CNA question, Campbell said that if Network took a stand against legal abortion she thought it wouldn’t lose donors.

“I don’t think so. For one, we don’t have a Ford Foundation grant right now,” she said. “Do you know how big the Ford Foundation is? It’s huge. And we’ve had small money. I don’t believe they’ve changed our mission.”

The Ford Foundation has net assets of $13 billion, and gave out some $500 million, its 2018 tax forms show. The organization has historically backed the Catholics for Choice group. Since 2006, the foundation has given over $5 million to the United States, Mexican and Brazilian branches of the pro-abortion rights organization, whose claims to be Catholic have been repeatedly rebuked by the U.S. Catholic bishops.

The foundation has also supported the U.S. bishops’ relief agency Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

Another Ford grantee, Faith in Public Life, has received over $3.5 million in 14 grants from the Ford Foundation since 2007. This included a $225,000 grant in 2013 for an immigrant advocacy campaign, including support for Network Lobby’s “Nuns on the Border” bus tour. Network Lobby continues to participate in Faith in Public Life efforts, and endorsed its 2020 voter’s guide.

At least one recent grant to Faith in Public Life has taken a pro-abortion turn. The Ford Foundation gave $400,000 to the group for its Women of Faith 2020 campaign, which aims “to form a stronger vocal base of support for reproductive justice among moderate women of faith, and actively advance these principles through civic engagement.”

Another Network Lobby donor, the Bauman Foundation, has given grants of $20,000 to $50,000 to the Network Education Program in every fiscal year from 2008 through 2019. While the foundation has two Catholic priests on its board of advisers, another board member is Jenny Lawson, Vice President of Organizing and Electoral Campaigns at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Votes.

Campbell told CNA her group does not ask donors if they are Catholic, but she assumes a majority are Catholic “because we’re a Catholic social justice lobby.”

Among donors who have a relationship with Network, she said, “I don’t know a big donor who isn’t Catholic.” She rejected the idea that NETWORK could be a “dark money” group. That phrase, in her view, is “about money that doesn’t get reported.”

“That’s secret money that gets passed through to candidates and campaigns. Our money is reported in our reporting to the IRS. That’s not dark money.”

“Quite frankly, they’re small amounts over a 10-year period,” she said.

Another donor, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, gave $225,000 to Network Lobby for civil rights, social action and advocacy, according to the fund’s 2018 tax year forms.

Politico has characterized the fund as a “dark money” group. In a November 19, 2019 story, Politico said the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent $141 million on “more than 100 left-leaning causes” in 2018.  Only the right-leaning Koch Brothers network and Crossroads network have exceeded those figures in a single year. The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave another $91 million to 95 other groups.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation, another Network Lobby donor, gave a $200,000 grant in 2020 to the group to promote “policies that mend gaps and bridge divides in our country, with a special focus on healthcare, housing rights, and citizenship policies that disproportionately impact women and people of color.” The foundation describes itself as “a multi-generational family foundation, rooted in the Jewish tradition of social justice, working to create a more just, vibrant, sustainable, and democratic society.”

Campbell has pushed back at objections to Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ 2018 criticism of a federal judicial nominee for his membership in the Knights of Columbus. Harris specifically criticized the Knights of Columbus’ pro-life work and its support for marriage as a union of one man and one woman. She questioned whether the nominee was disqualified due to his membership.

Responding to the incident, a Knights of Columbus spokesperson said membership should not be a disqualifier for public service, describing the order as “a charitable organization that adheres to and promotes Catholic teaching.”

In an Aug. 17 essay in the National Catholic Reporter, Campbell argued that Harris “voiced her disagreement with some of the political positions of the Knights of Columbus.”

“I’m a Catholic sister, and I disagree with some of the political positions of Knights of Columbus,” she continued. “So let’s drop this ridiculous attack and evaluate Harris’ record faithfully.”

The Knights of Columbus is the largest Catholic men’s fraternity in the world, with about 2 million members. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in his July 14 letter to the Knights’ Supreme Convention, conveyed the Pope’s greetings and sentiments, and praised the Knights’ “strong and courageous defense of the inviolable dignity of human life from its conception.”

Campbell told CNA said Parolin’s remarks were “great” and “good news.” But she said she would not take part in that effort.

“I don’t agree with their stance as regards to the stance of economic justice,” she said. “They don’t work for increasing wages, they don’t work for ensuring that immigration law is fixed. They don’t work for the marginalized. They would say that’s their niche. I think they ought to expand.”

Asked why Network Lobby cannot expand its work on abortion, she said “because it doesn’t fit in economic justice, which is our mission.”

“The thing that’s so painful for me is the view that only one issue, as important as it is, defines all of Catholicity,” she said. “And it doesn’t. I think we have to have grown-up faith, where we see complexity, just as Pope Francis says.”

The group has previously clashed with the U.S. bishops’ conference. In 2010, when the bishops were working for strong restrictions on abortion and for strong conscience protections in the major healthcare bill known as the Affordable Care Act, Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, director of Media Relations at the USCCB, said the group “grossly overstated whom they represent in a letter to Congress that was also released to media.”

Network Lobby has also backed an LGBT advocacy bill called the Equality Act, opposed by the U.S. bishops. The bishops have said the bill would threaten the right to free speech, conscience and exercise of religion, and would redefine gender in a way that could require women to share restrooms and locker rooms with men who say they identify as women.

Network Lobby has had a longtime relationship with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the subject of a Vatican doctrinal assessment published in April 2012 that also mentioned Network Lobby.

That assessment said “while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”

The Catholic view of family life and human sexuality “are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching,” and the conference statements sometimes disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the Church’s “authentic teachers of faith and morals,” the assessment said.

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