Chicago, Ill., Jun 7, 2019 / 03:08 am (CNA).- On Friday, May 31, four lanes of traffic on a major thoroughfare in the city of Chicago shut down for an hour and a half, while 3,200 people marched past.
Instead of political banners, they held candles. I… […]
Washington D.C., Jun 7, 2019 / 12:34 am (CNA).- In his opening question for Peter J. Phipps, a judicial nominee for the United States Third Circuit court, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) started with what he called “a hard question.”
“Are y… […]
Tallahassee, Fla., Jun 6, 2019 / 07:34 pm (CNA).- The co-cathedral of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee was damaged by fire Wednesday, with several of the chairs in the sanctuary set ablaze using an accelerant. The church’s rector has said he … […]
Arlington, Va., Jun 6, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Sgt. Carl Mann, Sr. died March 30 at the age of 96, almost a month after his son, Fr. Gordon Mann, died of leukemia at the age of 59.
Both of the Manns’ lives were changed forever on June 6, decades apart.
For the patriarch of the Mann family, his life-altering June 6 came in 1944, when he was part of the second wave of soldiers who stormed Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day invasion. Gordon’s was in 1992, when he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Evansville.
According to Miles and Carl Mann II, two of Carl Sr.’s sons, nobody realized the significance of the overlapped dates until they began planning their father’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery – which was also held June 6.
The brothers do not believe this happened by chance.
“It’s not a coincidence, I promise you,” Miles told CNA. “I’m not good enough to try to coordinate anything like this and put all these pieces together. But God’s perfect and that’s how it happens.”
Their father lived his life by a simple motto: “God, country, and family.”
While in the army, Mann would take time to pray and evangelize, even in the face of death and in the midst of bloodshed.
Mann would baptize soldiers in the middle of battle. Miles said he “was basically just the hands and feet of Jesus to do that.”
Carl II said that his father was willing and able to baptize on the battlefield as he knew that he was “spiritually ready” to die, and wanted to make sure others were as well.
“He just knew there was nothing in the world more important than (baptism),” said Miles. “Not even his own life.”
Some soldiers came to know Christ in their dying moments because of Mann’s battlefield prayers.
“His buddies would ask him was he was doing because they saw him kneeling down praying in the middle of the battle. And, a lot of those men didn’t know who Jesus was,” said Miles. They would ask Mann to teach them how to pray, and he would reply, “just listen.”
“He’d finish the prayer and then they would finish whatever skirmish or battle or event they were in the middle of. Some of them made it, some of them didn’t, but the ones that did not make it, they got to meet Jesus through him.”
Initially, Sgt. Mann was reluctant to discuss his military experience, and would often make jokes relating to his service.
“He would say, ‘Boy, I couldn’t wait to get off that (Omaha) beach. We were out of hotdogs and the ice cream was melting,’” said Miles. That all changed about a decade ago, after he was asked by a grandchild on which side of World War II he had fought.
Realizing that history was at risk of being forgotten, he began to open up more about his service, and shared his story at high schools and to his family. In addition to Normandy, Mann also served in the Battle of the Bulge and assisted in the liberation of two concentration camps. He was awarded three Purple Hearts and seven Bronze Stars, which enabled him to be buried at Arlington.
Sgt. Mann’s priorities of God, country, and family will leave a lasting legacy after his death.
“I think that I could give one perspective on it. It’s Dad’s statement was this: You know, my brother is him,” said Carl II, gesturing around.
“My brothers were willing to die for freedom. He said, ‘but there was only one who died for our sins.’ And that was his faith.”
Washington D.C., Jun 6, 2019 / 04:33 pm (CNA).- Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is facing opposition within the Democratic Party after voicing his support for the Hyde Amendment, a federal policy prohibiting tax dollars from paying for elective abortions.
Biden’s presidential campaign this week reiterated his support for the Hyde Amendment to NBC News.
The move immediately drew strong criticism from abortion advocacy groups, as well as from other Democratic candidates.
“There’s no political or ideological excuse for Joe Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment, which translates into discrimination against poor women and women of color plain and simple,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a June 5 statement.
Kelley Robinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, was similarly critical.
“As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” she said in a statement.
Biden, who has been vocal about his Catholic faith throughout his political career, has repeatedly said that he is personally opposed to abortion but supports its legality. In his 2007 book “Promises to Keep,” Biden described his position on abortion as “middle-of-the-road” and reiterated his opposition to both federal funding of abortions and partial-birth abortions.
While Biden’s views on abortion have shifted over time, he has generally presented himself as pro-choice. Throughout his time in the Senate, he opposed numerous pro-life Supreme Court appointments. Last month, he released a video opposing new state-level pro-life legislation and saying he would support federal protections for abortion. He has recently reiterated that he thinks Roe v. Wade is “the law of the land.”
Biden’s stance on the Hyde Amendment, however, puts him at odds with other major Democratic hopefuls, including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren.
The Hyde Amendment was introduced in 1976 by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). It is not a law, but rather has been passed as a rider to budget legislation every year.
A policy that has been supported by members of both parties, it prohibits federal tax dollars from paying for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when it is deemed necessary to save the life of the mother.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, has estimated that more than 2 million unborn lives have been saved as a result of the policy.
Various efforts to repeal the Hyde Amendment over the years have failed.
Biden enjoys a strong lead in the polls over more than two dozen other Democratic presidential hopefuls. While many of the other prominent candidates have moved in an increasingly progressive direction with their policy proposals, Biden has remained more moderate on topics such as the environment and health care. The former vice president argues that in order to beat President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, the Democratic Party will need to appeal to mainstream voters, including moderate independents and dissatisfied Republicans.
A survey by the Harvard School of Public Health found that the majority of Americans oppose taxpayer money being used for elective abortions.
However, the Democratic Party in 2016 included in its national platform a statement of support for repealing the Hyde Amendment, as well as opposition to state and federal restrictions on abortion.
Several other Democratic presidential contenders shot back at Biden and reiterated their own stance in favor of removing the Hyde Amendment.
“There is #NoMiddleGround on women’s rights. Abortion is a constitutional right. Under my Medicare for All plan, we will repeal the Hyde Amendment,” said U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Twitter.
“No woman’s access to reproductive health care should be based on how much money she has,” said U.S. Senator Kamala Harris. “We must repeal the Hyde Amendment.”
“No matter your income or where you live, every woman should have access to health care including abortion,” said former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
Washington D.C., Jun 6, 2019 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said June 6 that the U.S. Senate might soon have an opportunity to vote “on some kind of legislation related to Planned Parenthood.”
During an interview… […]
Philadelphia, Pa., Jun 6, 2019 / 01:22 pm (CNA).- Bishop Borys Gudziak was enthroned Tuesday as Archbishop of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, which heralded the arrival of the “new spiritual leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the United … […]
Springfield, Ill., Jun 6, 2019 / 04:05 am (CNA).- The Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, has decreed that state legislative leaders may not be admitted to Holy Communion within his diocese, because of their work to pass the state Reproductive Health Act…. […]
Des Moines, Iowa, Jun 6, 2019 / 12:03 am (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Iowa have agreed to voluntarily hand over records on clerical sex abuse allegations in their dioceses, responding to a request made last week by the state attorney general.
&ldqu… […]
St. Louis, Mo., Jun 5, 2019 / 06:18 pm (CNA).- A Missouri circuit court judge ruled Tuesday that doctors not employed by a St. Louis Planned Parenthood do not have to testify in a hearing on the clinic, which is the last functioning Planned Parenthood in the state.
Last week, Planned Parenthood in St. Louis sued the state after its health department refused to renew the clinic’s license.
State officials cited health and safety concerns about the clinic, while Planned Parenthood representatives said they had done everything possible to comply with state requirements.
The license of the Planned Parenthood clinic in question was set to expire May 31, but the clinic was able to secure a restraining order from Judge Michael F. Stelzer of Missouri Circuit Court in St. Louis, which allowed the clinic temporarily to continue operating past that date.
The state had subpoenaed five doctors in residence who had worked at the Planned Parenthood, though not as employees of the clinic, for interviews in the ongoing investigative hearing. Stelzer dismissed the subpoena as an “undue burden” on those doctors June 4.
“The non-parties have shown that compliance with the subpoenas would present an undue burden and hardship on [the non-Planned Parenthood physicians] and that the subpoenas should be quashed,” Stelzer wrote, according to CBS.
The state had previously said that the renewal of the Planned Parenthood’s license depended upon its interviews of these doctors.
While the clinic is the last abortion provider in Missouri, there is a private surgical abortion clinic near St. Louis, across the Mississippi River in Granite City, Ill. A Planned Parenthood clinic 20 miles away in Belleville, Ill. offers medication-induced abortion, the New York Times reported.
Dr. Colleen McNicholas, a Planned Parenthood physician in St. Louis, told CBS that “we are 100 percent committed to the best care that we can provide for patients. So certainly if there is an issue with the care we’re providing we want to know about it. We want to be able to address that. But we can’t do that when we’re being attacked.”
A 2016 report on an inspection of the clinic, the most recent available through CheckMyClinic.org, shows that the clinic at that time was in violation of multiple state standards involving the sterilization and storing of equipment, and the proper documentation of medication and procedures.
Pro-life advocates have expressed concern that the clinic’s closure has been delayed despite violations of public health standards.
“This particular facility’s track record shows an appalling pattern of botched abortions and other violations that prove they are incapable of policing themselves,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said May 31.
“Planned Parenthood does not deserve special treatment and the health and safety of women should never come second to the abortion industry’s bottom line.”
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