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Washington D.C., Jan 31, 2020 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- The EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network has announced the launch of a new weekly radio show, called “Conversations with Consequences,” which will premiere Feb. 1.

The show will be produced by EWTN and Guadalupe Radio Network, and will be hosted by Dr. Grazie Christie of The Catholic Association, with other staff from the association featured as well.

“Our idea is to have a conversation, most of the time with guests but sometimes with each other, that is intellectual enough to spark consequences of thought – different ways of looking at difficult subjects – in our listeners,” Christie said in a Jan. 31 press release announcing the new show.

She said the idea is to “take the time to tackle issues in a deeper way than normally can be done on radio.”

“I also think it’s important that we are well-informed professional women as well as mothers and wives,” she added. “The culture is always telling us what’s good for women. It’s important for women themselves to be in that conversation, to say this is the real world as we’re experiencing it.”

Dr. Christie, a practicing physician and mother of five, has appeared frequently on other EWTN programming, including Morning Glory, EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, and EWTN News Nightly.

Christie is a policy advisor at The Catholic Association, which works to provide “a faithful Catholic voice in the public square.” She is joined at the association by legal advisor Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, a former appellate clerk, attorney, and mother of 10; senior fellow Maureen Malloy Ferguson, a former National Right to Life Committee spokeswoman and Congressional liaison and mother of five; and senior fellow Ashley McGuire, an author, editor of the Institute for Family Studies blog, policy fellow with the American Conservative Union Foundation, and mother of three.

EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw said the network is proud to offer its audience the new radio show.

“Whether discussing issues of Life, Religious Liberty, the Church, or Human Dignity, listeners can expect an intelligent and thoughtful conversation from a faithful Catholic perspective with the leading thinkers of our time,” he said.

The first month of “Conversations with Consequences” will see guests including Mary Rice Hasson, a Catholic studies fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who will discuss transgenderism and gender ideology; and George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who will talk about the abuse crisis, religious liberty, and the imprisonment of Cardinal George Pell.

The show will also tackle current political issues, with U.S. Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) scheduled to discuss pro-life issues, and U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback slated to discuss religious liberty as guests on the show in the upcoming month.

“Conversations with Consequences” will be produced at EWTN’s Washington, D.C. studios and will be released each Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on EWTN Radio.

Currently in its 38th year, EWTN Global Catholic Network is the world’s largest religious media network. It offers 11 global TV channels, broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to more than 300 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. Other EWTN platforms include radio services transmitted via SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and more than 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates, and a worldwide shortwave radio service. EWTN also offers one of the largest Catholic websites in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency and the National Catholic Register; and a book publishing division.

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Hartford, Conn., Jan 31, 2020 / 04:28 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Connecticut issued a statement Tuesday clarifying Church teaching on vaccines, as legislators in the state consider a proposal that would eliminate the option for religious exemptions from vaccines.

The bishops said that while the Church considers vaccines to be moral and encourages their use, religious freedom is also an important right to protect.

“The Catholic Church encourages the use of vaccines, and our Connecticut Catholic schools require mandatory vaccinations,” the bishops said Jan. 28.

The bishops issued their statement ahead of a Feb. 19 hearing, during which Connecticut lawmakers will hear arguments from hundreds of people regarding the proposal to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccines, the Hartford Courant reported.

The bill, which would eliminate the exemption if passed, is being drafted ahead of the hearing but may be amended afterward. The Hartford Courant reported that at one time, lawmakers were considering “grandfathering in” children who already enrolled in school with a religious exemption for their vaccines, allowing them to stay enrolled in school. However, the paper reported, legislators seemed to be reconsidering that proposal.

“(State Health Commissioner Renee) Coleman-Mitchell and other state officials have cited concern for children with compromised immune systems who cannot receive shots for medical reasons,” should the exemption remain, the Hartford Courant reported. If passed, religious exemptions for enrollment in school would be eliminated by October 2021.

In their statement, the bishops recognized that conscientious objection to vaccines often arises with “certain vaccines that use human fetal cell lines, but the use of such vaccines is not immoral according to Church guidance.”

The bishops recommended that concerned Catholics reference the Pontifical Academy for Life’s guidance to Catholics on vaccines.

In these guidelines, the academy states that Catholics should advocate for morally uncomplicated alternatives to vaccines that are made from fetal cell lines, and for which there are no alternatives.

The academy notes that conscientious objection may be used as one way to advocate for moral vaccine alternatives, “if it can be done without causing children, and indirectly the population as a whole, to undergo significant risks to their health.”

It adds that conscientious objection to such vaccines is not a moral obligation for Catholics, especially if and when it would cause “grave inconvenience” in threatening the health and life of children and other vulnerable populations.

“In any case, there remains a moral duty to continue to fight and to employ every lawful means in order to make life difficult for the pharmaceutical industries which act unscrupulously and unethically. However, the burden of this important battle cannot and must not fall on innocent children and on the health situation of the population—especially with regard to pregnant women,” the academy states.

The bishops also noted the importance of religious freedom in debates about vaccines and religious exemptions.

“The Connecticut Catholic Conference, our public policy office, stands as a defender of religious liberty for all,” they said. “In general, the Conference maintains that all religious exemptions should be jealously guarded.”

“Any repeal of a religious exemption should be rooted in legitimate, grave public health concerns. The existence of a health risk in the state of Connecticut is a question of fact beyond our expertise at this time,” the bishops concluded.

States and schools are grappling with religious exemptions to vaccines as the number of people declining vaccines for religious or personal reasons has increased.

In October 2019, the Archdiocese of Seattle announced that it would no longer admit children to Catholic schools who did not have mandatory vaccinations, and that it would no longer allow personal or religious exemptions.

In 2016, California passed a law adding more stringent guidelines as to what counted for medical and personal exemptions from vaccines, which also called for the investigation of doctors who wrote too many exemptions in a year. Since the law passed, the state has recovered a 95% vaccination rate, Forbes reported, the rate needed for herd immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases.

The Hartford Courant noted that an effort to eliminate religious exemptions to vaccines was recently defeated in New Jersey, and that groups in Connecticut advocating for religious exemptions hoped for a similar outcome.

In the U.S., measles outbreaks have occurred in recent years as more people decline vaccinations. As of October 25, 2019, the Connecticut Department of Public Health confirmed four cases of measles for that year in the state. Nationally, the Center for Disease Control reported that 2019 marked the highest measles rate in the United States in 27 years, with most cases of the measles occurring in unvaccinated people.

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Tallahassee, Fla., Jan 31, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- Two major banks withdrew support for a Florida scholarship program this week after deciding that the policies of some participating Christian schools were not sufficiently “inclusive” … […]

Washington D.C., Jan 31, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the new chair of the National Review Board, a lay advisory body to the bishops on the protection of children and youth.

Suzanne Healy was appointed … […]

Washington D.C., Jan 31, 2020 / 07:30 am (CNA).- A new partnership is aiming to expand training for medical professionals on how to identify and assist victims of human trafficking. 

Global Strategic Operatives for the Eradication of Human Traffi… […]

West Chester, PA, Jan 31, 2020 / 03:19 am (CNA).- A new sacrament formation program for the deaf and hard of hearing is offering adult catechetical information in American Sign Language.

Designed by Ascension Press, Hands of Grace: The Catholic Sacraments in American Sign Language became available on Jan. 6. It was developed by Father Sean Loomis, the chaplain for the Deaf Apostolate for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Creators of the new project hope the materials, designed specifically for the deaf community, can fill in gaps left by other catechetical programs and address some of the unique challenges faced by the hearing impaired, who may struggle with participating in Mass, Confession, and the Catholic community.

“A huge challenge among the deaf is that they are very uncatechized, and while that is certainly the case with the vast majority of Catholics, that catechesis is impoverished in a significant way” for those who are deaf, Loomis told CNA.

“Most deaf people at this point aren’t even interested. They already feel turned off,” he said. “So like 1% of deaf people even go to church because they feel like the church of any denomination really has nothing to offer them.”

The new project offers three-part videos on each sacrament. Each segment is about 6-10 minutes long, and together they discuss the presence of the sacrament in scripture and tradition, the theology of the sacrament, and the sacrament’s personal significance.

“The first video … [introduces] them to the scriptural defense of where Christ established the sacraments so that they get exposed to the Word of God as well as the writings of the Church fathers…So that they see what the Catholic church believes is not something we fabricated somewhere along the way, but has been the same belief from the very beginning age of the Church all the way until now,” he said.

“The second video for every sacrament … is about the theology of it,” he said. “It’s the catechesis behind it. It’s what’s really going on in the divine plan when this sacrament is received. So it’s sort of the dogmatic approach.”

“The third one is about living the grace. So now that you are a baptized individual, for example, what does that mean about your life? I want them to practice the mental exercise of taking theory and abstract theology and applying it concretely to their very individual and specific life,” he added.

The program also includes a workbook, which offers quotes from saints and the catechism, as well as works of art. Loomis stressed the value of artwork as a visual stimulus for deaf Catholics to pray and learn about Church history.

“I also have Visio Divina,” he said, a type of prayer “where they look at a piece of artwork and learn how to read that Christian art to see what it is that they actually believe. In that way, I’m trying to expose them to the wealth of the Christian artwork that has been part of our heritage.”

“That is specifically something I thought would help them encounter God in a way that’s unique to their culture and their specific needs.”

Fr. Loomis is not deaf, but began learning American Sign Language during seminary, after being asked to consider deaf ministry. He practiced sign language each week with a local deaf man to gain proficiency.

After years of practice, Loomis said he has come to better understand the isolation and misunderstanding that often faces the deaf community. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is particularly challenging, he said.

“They can go to a hearing priest and write their sins down on a sheet of paper, which some will do. And of course, they experience a diminished satisfaction with that since they can’t receive any feedback from the priest…They’re not consoled by the words of absolution because they can’t hear them.”

Under Loomis’ leadership, the Deaf Apostolate for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been able to designate interpreters for 13 different churches, and to offer a Mass entirely in American Sign Language.

“When I offer Mass, I don’t voice it and then have an interpreter stand nearby. I do the entire thing in American Sign Language so that they can experience the incarnation of Christ who comes to them as they are, in persona Christi, through my priesthood,” he said.

Father Shawn Carey, director and chaplain of the deaf apostolate for the Archdiocese of Boston, understands firsthand the significance of these ministries.

Carey, who was born deaf, told CNA that he faced difficulties in accessing catechetical classes as a child.

Growing up in Massachusetts, Carey’s family had to approach a few Catholic parishes to find a first communion class that would be willing to work with him. Eventually, he said, one pastor decided to hire a private tutor for him instead.

While improvements have been made in some areas, challenges still exist today, including Mass without interpreters and theological videos with captions, he said.

“[However,] we are making progress,” he said. “We do have a good number of deaf priests who’ve been ordained, which is great. So that’s a real positive.”

Progress has been made with additional resources as well, he added, although more remains to be done. Carey has recently been involved in translating the youth catechism YouCat into American Sign Language. A series of weekly videos will be released to discuss YouCat’s 527 questions.

Carey said that as a deaf priest, he has been able to connect with the deaf community and bring them closer to the sacraments and the faith. One of his favorite memories in the ministry was leading deaf Catholics on a pilgrimage for World Youth Day in Krakow. He said it was an opportunity to build bridges between the deaf community and others in the Church.

“I think that for me as a deaf priest, it is really beneficial to be able to minister to people who are deaf, because we have a similar background and shared experiences of struggles growing up … [We have] a lot in common that people who are not deaf wouldn’t necessarily understand.”

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Washington D.C., Jan 30, 2020 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Longstanding court precedent has recognized religious schools’ right to pursue their mission in faculty employment decisions, and so the National Labor Relations Board wrongly claimed jurisdiction over Duquesne University, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has said in a decision vacating the board’s recognition of a labor union for adjunct faculty.

“Just like churches, schools may pursue a religious mission. Indeed, education is at the core of religious activity for many Americans,” Judge Thomas Griffith said in the 2-1 decision issued Jan. 28. Court precedent has recognized teachers’ “critical and unique role” in “fulfilling the mission of a church-operated school,” he said.

“This holds true regardless of whether the teacher provides instruction in religious or secular subjects,” Griffith continued. “Given this vital role played by teachers, exercising jurisdiction over disputes involving teachers at any church-operated school presented a ‘significant risk that the First Amendment will be infringed’.”

He cited the NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago 1979 Supreme Court decision, which sided with the Catholic schools’ refusal to recognize a teachers’ union. The Supreme Court held that the labor board lacked jurisdiction over all teachers at church-operated schools.

Similar cases said this reasoning applied to religious colleges and universities, according to Griffith. Various precedents deny the labor board the ability to inquire about the relationship of faculty to religious mission for fear of chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and disrupting a community’s ability to define itself.

Duquesne is a Catholic school of about 6,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students. It is the only U.S.-based university affiliated with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Adjunct faculty organizing efforts formalized in 2012, when a majority of about 88 adjuncts at Duquesne’s McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts sought to unionize through the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union. At present they teach 44 percent of all credit hours in the university’s core curriculum, including math, science, writing, philosophy, theology, and ethics, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Duquesne asked the national labor relations board to vacate the election, but the board’s regional officials asserted jurisdiction on the grounds Duquesne did not hold out to the public that its adjunct faculty performed specific religious roles at the school.

In 2018, the university challenged the labor board’s ruling in federal court.

Gabriel Welsch, a spokesman for Duquesne University, welcomed the Jan. 28 decision.

“The university is grateful that the court recognized the importance of our religious mission in rendering this significant decision,” Welsch said. “The Constitution’s First Amendment protection of religious freedom from government intrusion and regulation is one of America’s most important rights, and we are pleased that the court upheld the religious rights of Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit.”

Welsch said the university has deep respect and appreciation for unions, citing its long-term relationships with four unions which represent several hundred non-faculty employees.

“The university looks forward to continuing those positive and fruitful relationships in every way,” the spokesman said.

United Steelworkers spokeswoman Jess Kamm Broomell said the union is “disappointed with the court’s decision and even more concerned that Duquesne’s administration would fight this hard to keep their workers from having a voice on the job.”

“Unlike other Catholic universities that recognized adjunct faculty unions, the Duquesne administration decided to invoke its status as a religiously affiliated institution in an effort to stop adjuncts from joining together to improve their working conditions and the university community,” Kamm Broomell said.

It is unknown whether the national labor board will appeal the ruling, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Catholicism in America has had a long tradition of supporting labor unions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issues a statement every Labor Day. The U.S. bishops were critical of a major 2018 Supreme Court ruling striking down mandatory fees paid to public-sector unions undermines workers. They cited Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical Caritas in veritate, which defends labor unions and objects to limits on their freedom.

In her dissent from the appellate court ruling, Judge Cornelia Pillard argued that the ban on unionization under national labor board rules applies only to full-time faculty, not part-time adjuncts who “often have a very different role.”

“It is not at all apparent that temporary, part-time adjuncts whom the school does not even hold out as agents of its religious mission necessarily fall within an exemption from the National Labor Relations Act that was drawn to account for the ‘critical and unique role’ of faculty in ‘fulfilling the mission of a church-operated school’,” she said.

Welsch said that in the wake of the court decision, Duquesne president Ken Gormley is “committed to taking a fresh look” at the university’s engagement with adjunct faculty.

“The university looks forward to working with our adjuncts, and indeed with all of our faculty and staff, to identify the right solutions for our wonderful community of scholars, teachers, and learners in the context of our unique mission,” Welsh said. “Our Catholic and Spiritan mission requires nothing less.”

The court also recognized the Catholic identity of the school.

“Duquesne holds itself out as providing a religious educational environment by publicly identifying itself as a Catholic institution guided by Catholic principles, providing regular Catholic religious services on campus, and encouraging students to participate in religious study groups, lectures, and projects,” the appellate court’s ruling said.

The court cited the danger of labor board intervention if a school took action against teachers for failing to comply with religious principles and of entanglement in questions like judging the content or application of religious principles.

The lack of jurisdiction similarly means the labor board “will not get involved in disputes between churches and their employees for fear of interfering with the churches’ religious missions.”

The court faulted the labor board’s framing of the issue, saying it pitted academic freedom against religious mission, both because this view entangled the board in adjudicating religious claims, and because it excluded the possibility that the faculty’s exercise of academic freedom might be understood as serving a religious mission.

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, which filed an amicus brief in support of Duquesne, said the case was about how the government decides to recognize faith-based institutions. The labor board, in the association’s view, “chose to limit the designation of ‘Catholic’ strictly to the work that is done by professors teaching religion or other narrow corners of our institutions to be decided, institution-by-institution, by the NLRB itself.”

“No government office should ever have the power to decide, department-by-department, course-by-course, which ones are doing the Church’s work and which ones are not,” the association said.

Court precedents articulate “the problems that can arise when a government office decides what activity is religious and what is not.” While acknowledging that a number of its Catholic campuses welcome labor unions, the association said that “empowering government offices to decide which components of a university are faith-based is simply the wrong way to protect faculty.”

The appellate court ruling said that because the court has established that the labor board does not have jurisdiction over religious schools and faculty, it did not need to address the plaintiff’s claims that the board lacks jurisdiction for other reasons and claims that the board violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

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Pierre, S.D., Jan 30, 2020 / 03:32 pm (CNA).- A bill aiming to ban sex-reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking medication for minors passed the South Dakota House of Representatives by a vote of 46-23 on Wednesday.

Christopher Motz, executive director of the South Dakota Catholic Conference, praised the vote.

“Given the moral and ethical issues at stake, which are fundamental to the integral good of the human person, it’s great to see such a strong vote in the House,” he told CNA Thursday.

“The voices of faithful citizens encouraging their elected leaders no doubt contributed to this positive result,” he continued. “As the bill advances to the Senate, the voices of faithful citizens will be crucial to securing another strong vote.”

HB 1057 would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for doctors to dispense puberty-blocking drugs to those under the age of 16 for the purpose of changing or affirming the perception of their sex, and lists a number of surgical procedures including castration, vasectomy, and hysterectomy that doctors would not be allowed to perform on minors.

The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports the measure and is encouraging Catholics to contact their lawmakers about the bill.

“HB 1057 would protect boys and girls from harmful medicalization with unknown, potentially life-long consequences,” the conference wrote Jan. 16.

“With deep compassion for the experience of suffering that marks those with gender dysphoria, the Church firmly insists on the dignity of all human persons as created and loved by God, and further expresses special affection for the marginalized and suffering.”

“HB 1057 would ensure children, especially those experiencing distress concerning their sex, are given the chance to develop and grow in understanding the gift of their created nature without pressures towards harmful medicalization,” the conference concluded.

Just a few Republicans voted against the bill, the Associated Press reported. The legislation will now be considered in the Senate.

The provisions of the bill do not apply to “the good faith medical decision of a parent or guardian of a minor born with a medically-verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.”

The South Dakota bill comes in the wake of an October 2019 decision by a federal judge to strike down an Obama-era requirement that doctors perform gender-transition surgeries upon request.

The regulation stemmed from Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination in health care on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. HHS interpreted “sex discrimination” under this rule to include gender identity, thus mandating the provision of gender-transition surgeries.

In response to the rule, an alliance of more than 19,000 health care professionals, nine states, and several religious organizations combined in two lawsuits against the mandate, saying that it unlawfully required doctors who objected to the procedures to violate their religious beliefs or the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to the patient.

Similar bills to the one proposed in South Dakota are under consideration in other states, including ones introduced during the 2020 session in Florida and Colorado that, like the South Dakota bill, would impose criminal penalties for transgender surgery performed on minor.

In other states, like Illinois, Oklahoma and South Carolina, bills are under consideration that provide for the loss of a doctor’s medical license if they perform transgender surgery on a minor.

A bill under consideration in Missouri would revoke a doctor’s medical license if they administer gender-reassignment treatment, and parents who consent to such treatment would be reported to child-welfare officials for child abuse, the AP reports.

State lawmakers in Kentucky and Texas also have announced plans to file similar bills, the Washington Post reports.

A state representative in Georgia during November 2019 proposed a law that would make it a felony for medical professionals to attempt to change a minor’s gender either through surgery or medication.

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St. Paul, Minn., Jan 30, 2020 / 02:22 pm (CNA).- A priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has apologized for a homily that described Islam as the biggest threat in the world to the United States and to Christianity.

“My homily o… […]

Richmond, Va., Jan 30, 2020 / 12:15 pm (CNA).- Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Catholic, cast the tie-breaking vote on Wednesday to pass a bill to liberalize abortion access in the commonwealth. 

Senate Bill 733 received 20 votes in favor and 20 votes against on Jan. 29. Virginia’s state Senate is composed of 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans. Fairfax, as lieutenant governor, is the Senate president and casts tie-breaking votes. 

The bill, which has already passed the House and now awaits the Governor’s signature, would repeal a Virginia law mandating that only doctors can perform abortions, allowing other medical professionals, such as physicians assistants and nurse practictioners, to do abortions. The bill will also repeal a law requiring a woman to be given specific information about the abortion procedure before it takes place. 

Under current commonwealth law, a woman must be given “a full, reasonable and comprehensive medical explanation of the procedure,” as well as alternatives to abortion. The woman must also be told that she can change her mind and withdraw her consent to the abortion at any time, and that she can talk to the doctor performing the abortion so they can answer questions. 

The current law also requires that a woman be told how old her preborn baby is, and have an ultrasound to confirm the estimated age. The woman can be shown the ultrasound if she wished. 

Under the new law, an abortionist–be it a physician, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant–still has to obtain “informed written consent of the pregnant woman” who wishes to have an abortion, but now no longer has to perform an ultrasound. 

The bill also changes the medical standards for abortion facilities. Under the new bill, places which “perform five or more first trimester abortions per month” are no longer considered to hospitals “for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum standards for hospitals.” This means that abortion facilities will be held to a lower safety and cleanliness standard than hospitals.

This bill is expected to be signed into law by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a known advocate for abortion. 

Last year, Northam supported a bill that would have permitted a legal abortion to take place even if the woman was in active labor. On a local radio show, Northam said that he believed that if a baby happened to survive an abortion attempt, it should be left up to “the woman and her doctor” to decide whether or not to keep the child alive. 

Northam’s comments sparked fierce criticism and calls for the governor’s resignation. Shortly after this radio comments, a picture from Northam’s page in a medical school yearbook emerged, showing a person in a Ku Klux Klan robe standing next to a person in blackface. Northam initially apologized for the image, then later denied it was him in the picture.

Fairfax, whose deciding vote moved the bill to Northam’s desk, has also faced controversy and calls to resign in the last year. 

Amid renewed calls for Northam’s resignation over the racist photograph and speculation that Fairfax could soon be sworn in as governor, two women came forward and said that they had been sexually assaulted by the lieutenant governor. Fairfax denied both of the allegations, admitting to a one-night encounter with one of the women which he called “100% consensual.”

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