In a statement addressed to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the 23rd Session in New York on April 16, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, spoke of the importance of supporting indigenous people, especially young people, and cultivating dialogue.
By Sr. Francine-Marie Cooper
Archbishop Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, spoke on Tuesday at the 23rd Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.
The meeting had the priority theme: “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-determination in the Context of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Emphasizing the Voices of Indigenous Youth”
In his statement on Tuesday, the Archbishop expressed that the Holy See acknowledged the work of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He continued to offer some “reflections on this year’s priority theme.”
Noting the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Archbishop described the importance of recognizing “the role of indigenous youth as present and future custodians of their culture.”
He explained that Pope Francis has encouraged indigenous young people to preserve their cultures and roots by fighting exclusion, waste and impoverishment in order to build a more just and humane world.
The Vatican diplomat spoke further of the contribution indigenous youth have to give in the cultural field. “They can actively engage in safeguarding and revitalizing their cultural practices and contribute to the preserving of their communities’ distinct ways of life, which are integral to their right to self-determination,” he said.
Indigenous youth serve as “bridges between generations, fostering inter-generational dialogue, understanding, and cooperation within their communities,” the Archbishop added.
They are also at the “forefront in advocating for the protection of ancestral lands, natural resources, and ecosystems, which constitute a key component of indigenous peoples’ identity.”
The Archbishop encouraged dialogue with indigenous people, and further explained how dialogue and identity are not “mutually exclusive.” He urged States to promote a “culture of encounter” rather than “a completely enclosed, a-historic, static ‘indigenism’ that would reject any kind of blending.”
The Vatican-Diplomat concluded with words from Pope Francis, who insists that “God, the Creator and Father of all peoples and of everything that exists, calls us today to live out and bear witness to our human call to universal fraternity, freedom, justice, dialogue, reciprocal encounter, love and peace, and to avoid fueling hatred, resentment, division, violence and war.”
Rome Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 09:14 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday presented the fourth and final cardinal virtue of temperance in his ongoing catechetical series of vices and virtues by noting that temperance itself is crucial for living a happy, balanced life.
“The gift of the temperate person is therefore balance, a quality as precious as it is rare. Indeed, everything in our world pushes to excess. Instead, temperance combines well with Gospel values such as smallness, discretion, modesty, meekness,” the pope said to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday.
“In a world where many people boast about saying what they think, the temperate person instead prefers to think about what he says,” the pope said. “He does not make empty promises but makes commitments to the extent that he can fulfill them.”
The pope noted that “the temperate person succeeds in holding extremes together: He affirms absolute principles, asserts nonnegotiable values, but also knows how to understand people and shows empathy for them.”
The pope opened his reflection on temperance by looking to Aristotle’s “The Nicomachean Ethics,” an ethical treatise on the art of living. Francis noted that according to the Greek philosopher, man’s flourishing and the ability to live a happy life is realizable only by “the capacity for self-mastery, the art of not letting oneself be overcome by rebellious passions.”
This reflection on Artistolean ethics sets the foundation for an understanding of virtue present in the Church’s teaching. “Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods,” the pope said, quoting from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
For the pope, temperance, as expressed in ancient thought and in the Church, can be summarized as “the virtue of the right measure,” a point he made by contrasting it with those who are “moved by impulse or exuberance,” which makes them “ultimately unreliable.”
Francis explained that being temperate does not always require one to be “peaceful” or with a “smiling face.” Instead, in certain situations, “it is necessary to be indignant, but always in the right way.”
“A word of rebuke is at times healthier than a sour, rancorous silence. The temperate person knows that nothing is more uncomfortable than correcting another person, but he also knows that it is necessary; otherwise, one offers free reign to evil,” the pope observed.
Following the blessing at the end of the general audience, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for peace in Ukraine and in Gaza, imploring that “prisoners of war” and the “tortured” be freed.
“The torture of prisoners is a very bad thing; it is not humane,” the pope said. “Let us think of the many tortures that harm the dignity of the person and of the many tortured people.”
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The ousted leader of the National League for Democracy Party and Nobel-laureate has been moved out of prison along with Myanmar former President Win Myint due to a major heat wave.
By Lisa Zengarini
Myanmar’s military junta has announced that former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been transferred from prison to house arrest. The former president of her ousted government Win Myint was also among elderly and infirmed prisoners moved from out of prison because of a severe heat wave, a military’s spokesperson told foreign correspondents late on Tuesday.
On Wednesday the junta also granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners, including 28 foreigners, to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday.
Suu Kyi, 78, is serving a 27-year prison term in the capital Naypyitaw’s main prison for a range of alleged crimes, including treason, bribery and violations of the telecommunications law. According to her supporters and rights groups the convictions were fabricated for political reasons.
She was arrested when the military overthrew her democratic government on February 1, 2021, claiming that her National League for Democracy Party used widespread electoral fraud to win the 2020 general elections, an allegation independent observers found baseless.
No indication has been given on whether the latest move of the junta is meant to be temporary or permanent.
Over the past months Suu Kyi’s health has reportedly deteriorated. Her younger son Kim Aris, a British national, has said in interviews that he had heard that his mother has been extremely ill and was unable to eat.
The youngest daughter of General Aung San, Father of the Nation of modern-day Myanmar, Suu Kyi, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest by previous military governments between 1989 and 2010, and played a vital role in the country’s transition to partial democracy in the 2010s.
Her tough stand against military rule turned her into a symbol of the nonviolent struggle for democracy in Myanmar and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
However, during her first term as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs after the first democratic elections in the country in 2015 she drew criticism from several countries and organisations over Myanmar’s inaction in response to the genocide of the Muslim Rohingya people in Rakhine State, and her refusal to acknowledge that the Myanmar’s military has committed massacres. In 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in the International Court of Justice where she defended the Myanmar military against allegations of genocide against this ethnic minority
Suu Kyi’s transfer comes as the army has been suffering a string of major defeats in its fight against pro-democracy resistance fighters and their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla forces who now control nearly all of Myanmar’s borders with Thailand, Laos, China, India, and Bangladesh.
The nationwide conflict began soon after the military crackdown on non-violent protests that sought a return to democratic rule. Over 20,000 people arrested on political charges since the army takeover are still in detention in Myanmar, most of whom have not received criminal convictions.
Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, has repeatedly called for a peaceful solution to conflict in the country. At the 28 January Angelus, he again decried the violence and joined the Burmese Bishops in praying that “the weapons of destruction may be transformed into instruments to grow in humanity and justice.” “For three years now,” he said, “the cry of pain and the din of weapons have taken the place of the smile that characterises the people of Myanmar.”
(Source: News agencies)
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Pope Francis pens the preface for a new book by Fr. Lucio Bonora on Pope St. Pius X, and praises the early 20th century Pope for the depth of his catechesis and opposition to World War I.
By Devin Watkins
“Pius X was a Pope who made the entire Church understand that without the Eucharist and without the assimilation of revealed truths, personal faith weakens and dies.”
Pope Francis offered that praise of his predecessor, Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), in a preface he wrote for a new book entitled “Tribute to Pius X. Contemporary Portraits”.
The book was written by Fr. Lucio Bonora, a priest from the Italian city of Treviso—the birthplace of Pius X—and an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Fr Luigi Bonora, author of the book
In his preface released on Wednesday, Pope Francis said he holds the late Pope in high esteem, recalling that he would meet yearly with catechists of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires on his feastday, August 21.
“I enjoyed spending time with those dedicated to instructing children and adults in the truths of the faith,” he said, “and Pius X has always been known as the Pope of catechesis.”
Pope Francis added that Pius X was “a gentle yet strong Pope, a humble and clear Pope.”
St. Pius X approved the creation of the Pontifical Biblical Institute run by the Jesuits in Rome, a decision which endeared him to the Jesuits, said Pope Francis.
The late Pope “wept at the onset of the [First] World War” and pleaded “with the powerful to lay down their arms.”
“How close I feel to him in this tragic moment of the modern world,” said Pope Francis of Pius X.
He also frequently expressed his closeness to “the little ones, the poor, the needy, earthquake victims, the disadvantaged, and those suffering from natural disasters.”
Piux X was “a Pope who was a monument to pastoral care, as defined by Pope St. John XXIII when he allowed Venice to venerate his mortal remains at St. Mark’s in the spring of 1959.”
Pope Francis thanked Fr. Bonora for his years of research into the life of Pius X, saying his dedication and passion emerge in the text.
The legacy of St. Pius X, added the Pope, belongs to the “Church of today” and to “the baptized of all ages, who seek to be faithful to the Gospel and to their pastors”.
“Long live St. Pius X, and may he live deeply in the heart of today’s Church!”
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The Holy See emphasises the need for solidarity and urgent action in response to Ethiopia’s humanitarian crisis, stressing the dire conditions of over 4.4 million internally displaced people and over one million refugees, along with severe drought, malnutrition, and economic difficulties.
By Francesca Merlo
Expressing solidarity with Ethiopia, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva, highlighted the plight of over 4.4 million internally displaced people and over one million refugees.
At the High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Situation in Ethiopia, taking place in Geneva on 16 April, Arcbishop Balestrero spoke on behalf of the Holy See when he said that the meeting was an expression of solidarity with “a Country enduring a profound humanitarian crisis”.
The Archbishop emphasised the urgency and scale of the mission, which he said “compels us to act with solidarity and support”.
He explained that Ethiopia is grappling with the consequences of conflict, disease outbreaks, and the fifth consecutive failed rainy season, resulting in the most severe drought conditions in decades. “These catastrophic events”, he explained, “have led to increased malnutrition rates, affecting in particular one million children and numerous women”.
Exacerbating the situation in the country are the severe economic difficulties, such as inflation and disrupted trade. In light of these difficulties, the Archbishop noted that “the Ethiopian authorities and various international partners have responded with remarkable resolve and commitment”. However, he continued, there is still a significant funding shortfall.
Pope Francis has emphasised the severity of the humanitarian crisis and the pressing need for solidarity with the affected populations. Reflecting his deep concern, Archbishop Balestrero noted that “the Holy See supports the appeals of the Ethiopian Episcopal Conference for immediate action and humanitarian aid and highly appreciates the convening of this High-level Pledging Event”.
The Catholic Church in Ethiopia, although a minority, plays a pivotal role in providing and distributing aid to populations affected by food insecurity and victims of other emergencies. Archbishop Balestrero recalled that in 2023, the activities of the local Catholic Churches benefitted nearly 6 million people in nine of the country’s twelve regions, regardless of their religious affiliation. The projects focused mainly on humanitarian aid and food security. “These figures do not include the significant amount of financial support provided by other international Catholic agencies”.
Concluding his discourse, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero reiterated that “today, the Holy See is renewing its commitment”. This is not out of obligation, he added, “but rather a profound sense of shared humanity, religious duty and moral obligation”.
“Let us act quickly and provide unwavering support to ensure that we make every effort to bring security, stability, and peace through our collective response to the humanitarian needs of Ethiopia”, he said.
CNA Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Following the announcement of Pope Francis’ apostolic journey to the Asia Pacific region later this year, Cardinal William Goh, archbishop of Singapore, has expressed his hope that the Holy Father’s visit to the city-nation from Sept. 11–13 “will bring renewed fervor to all Catholics in Singapore.”
In a media release, Goh encouraged the Catholic population of Singapore to unite and pray for the Holy Father’s upcoming visit. “Let us, as a community, pray for the continued health and safety of the Holy Father and ask the Lord to grant us a truly meaningful and grace-filled visit,” he said.
Pope Francis’ visit will come 10 years after Goh outlined his 10-year pastoral plan for the Catholic Church in Singapore.
At a 2014 meeting held with approximately 750 parish ministry representatives, Goh stated that the Church may appear vibrant because of “so many Masses, baptisms, confirmations,” but it nevertheless faces challenges, including the declining practice of faith among local Singaporeans.
“Half of the Catholics go to church. The Church is full thanks to the migrants,” he said.
To help Singaporean Catholics to spiritually prepare “to meet Jesus through Pope Francis’ pastoral visit,” the Archdiocese of Singapore also recently launched a dedicated website containing prayers, online resources, and other updates regarding the coming of the Holy Father in September. The website also unveiled the archdiocese’s chosen trifold theme of “Unity, Hope, and the Cross” to mark the occasion of the 2024 papal trip.
To date, there are about 395,000 Catholics living in the country who belong to diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Masses are predominantly celebrated in English but are also available in Mandarin, Tamil, and other Southeast Asian or European languages for local and expatriate communities.
Though the Catholic Church is relatively young and diverse, and it is growing in numbers in a place of political peace where religious tolerance toward institutions and individuals is mandated by the law, Goh hopes Pope Francis’ visit will spur a renewal and strengthening of faith, conversion of heart, and missionary spirit within Singapore’s Catholic communities.
Dominic Nalpon, a Singaporean theology student based in Rome, shares Goh’s sentiment that external factors, such as the numbers of Catholic faithful, do not necessarily indicate a “booming” Church.
“Singapore is probably the most Western country in Asia, which is not in and of itself a bad thing, but we are also the most affluent, and I think there is a correlation between affluence and a decline in faith or religiosity,” Nalpon said. “I think that the challenge is that we can easily fall into the external practices of faith but without having a grounded relationship with the Lord. I think that’s the hardest issue.”
One of the highlights of the pope’s visit to Singapore will be the papal Mass expected to take place on Sept. 12.
The last and only other time a pontiff visited Singapore was in 1986 when Pope John Paul II made a five-hour stopover in the country and celebrated Mass with thousands of people at the national stadium.
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In Jesus of Nazareth–Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI remarked on the striking parallel between the presence of the holy women at the cross of Christ and their role in the first appearances of the Risen Lord:
Just as there were only women standing by the Cross – apart from the beloved disciple – so too the first encounter with the Risen Lord was destined to be for them. The Church’s juridical structure is founded on Peter and the Eleven, but in the day-to-day life of the Church, it is the women who are constantly opening the door to the Lord and accompanying him to the Cross, and so it is they who come to experience the Risen One.
This truth over the centuries is ably demonstrated by Bronwen McShea in her fine new book, Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know. And no woman of our Catholic moment embodied this Christocentric fidelity – opening doors to Christ, accompanying him to Calvary, living in the joy of the Resurrection – more than Sister Nijolė Sadūnaitė, who died, appropriately, on Easter Sunday, March 31.
A clandestine religious in Soviet-occupied Lithuania from the time she was 18, Sister Nijolė helped create and distribute the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, a record of ongoing harassment, persecution, and martyrdom that had the honor of being the longest-running, uninterrupted dissident publication in the history of the USSR. Through surreptitious means, issue after issue of the Chronicle (which was produced in multiple copies on manual typewriters using ten sheets of carbon paper) was smuggled out of Lithuania to Europe and North America; it was then translated into various languages, to the intense aggravation of the masters of the multinational empire that was in truth a vast prison covering eleven time zones.
So, one by one, the leading figures in the publication of the Chroniclewere arrested by the KGB and sentenced to the GULAG camps. In 1975, Nijolė Sadūnaitė got three years of hard labor and three years of Siberian exile.
In the GULAG, she was tortured, imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, and spent stretches in solitary confinement. In exile, she worked as a charwoman, having previously done manual labor in a factory and cared for abandoned children. All the while, she kept her religious consecration a secret from everyone except her family and a few close friends. Released from exile, she resumed her underground resistance activities.
When the KGB came looking for her in 1982, she went underground for five years, during which she wrote a memoir of her prison camp experience, which was published in 1987 as A Radiance in the Gulag – an apt title for the reflections of a woman of infectious joy, remarkable energy, and unbroken spirit. During the Gorbachev thaw in the late 1980s, Sister Nijolė, by then a national heroine, became publicly visible at the mass demonstrations that eventually led to Lithuania’s auto-liberation in 1990-1991.
From 1986 to 1987, I helped my friend Congressman John Miller (himself Jewish) form the bipartisan Lithuanian Catholic Religious Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Caucus’s work, in collaboration with the Reagan Administration, helped free two founders of the Chronicle from the GULAG, Father Alfonsas Svarinskas and Father Sigitas Tamkevičius, SJ (later the archbishop of Kaunas and a cardinal).
Those two white martyrs, as well as Sister Nijolė, eventually made their way to Washington, where I had the honor of meeting each of them (as I did a second time during a moving reunion in Vilnius in 2013). On her visit to the nation’s capital, Sister Nijolė wanted to visit Washington’s cathedral. Afterward, while standing in front of St. Matthew’s on Rhode Island Avenue, she suddenly took a pin with a stylized version of the Lithuanian national coat of arms from her handbag, affixed it to my suit jacket lapel, and gave me a great hug. I felt as if I, a civilian, had been decorated by a combat veteran.
Sister Nijolė’s funeral Mass was celebrated in Vilnius’s Calvary Church with most of the country’s bishops present. At the end, there were spontaneous cries of Santo subito! (or its Lithuanian equivalent) – just as there had been after the funeral Mass of John Paul II, whom the underground nun, resistance hero, and GULAG survivor revered.
I hope it happens, someday, that the Church recognizes the heroic virtues of Nijolė Sadūnaitė and canonizes her. I have no doubt, however, that in defending her and having been privileged to meet her, my life was touched by a saint, whose witness mirrored that of the holy women of Calvary and Easter.
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Pope Francis turns his attention to prisoners of war, prays for their freedom and denounces the tortures many of them are subjected to.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis on Wednesday highlighted the plight of prisoners of war in conflict-stricken countries.
“Our thoughts, at this moment, [the thoughts] of all of us, go to the peoples at war,” he said, speaking off-cuff at the end of the General Audience.
“We think of the Holy Land, of Palestine, of Israel. We think of Ukraine, tormented Ukraine. We think of the prisoners of war…”
And raising an appeal for their liberation, the Pope said: May the Lord move wills so they may all be freed”
“May the Lord move wills so they may all be freed.”
Adding to his appeal Pope Francis had special thoughts for those prisoners who are subjected to torture.
“The torture of prisoners is a horrible thing, it is not human,” he decried, “We think of so many kinds of torture that wound the dignity of the person, and of so many tortured people… May the Lord help everyone and bless everyone.”
“We think of so many kinds of torture that wound the dignity of the person.”
A Fresh Coat of Paint – “While it is far short of the sort of justice that this case demands, we have reached beyond the point in the Father Marko Rupnik scandal when concrete steps must be taken to remove the disgraced artist’s ubiquitous mosaics from public display.” It’s Time to Remove Father Rupnik’s Art (National Catholic Register)
Dynamic Parish – “I am encouraged by the fairly large number of young adults who are entering the Church. They are seeking Truth and they know they have been lied to by the culture.” Christocentric Parish Life (What We Need Now – Substack)
Bring Em’ Back – “The Catholic Stand has just released the eighth part of a series of articles aimed at bringing lapsed Catholics back to the Church with common-sense arguments.” Catholic newspaper releases new evangelization tips to bring back lapsed Catholics (CatholicVote)
Hate Crime Law – “J.K. Rowling challenges an unjust gender law, and we must challenge its roots in the sexual revolution.” A model of courage in Scotland (World)
Peak Secularism – “Forgiveness is a Christian virtue, but the New Atheists make it difficult.” ‘New Atheism,’ Twenty Years On (The American Conservative)
Miss B Converted – “I wept with abundant joy after I received the Body and the Blood of Jesus, and my life will never be the same.” From P**n Worker to the Catholic Church: The In-Depth Conversion Story of the Woman Who Quit Sex Work (Church Pop)
565 Million Deaths – “In The Devil and Communist China, Steven Mosher convincingly argues that the evil practiced by the CCP eclipses that of the USSR.” The Devil And Communist China Tries To Prevent Future CCP Victims By Remembering Past Ones (The Federalist)
Cover-Ups and Risk-Taking – “In any institution the loyalty and obedience of subordinates is maintained by some kind of reward given by superiors.” Why Do Bishops Cover Up Sexual Abuse? (The European Conservative)
Only a Man – “Regrettably, there will always be popes who welcome ultramontanism and the unconditional adherence that comes with it, just as there will always be those souls who are more than eager to kowtow to the man who happens to be pope.” The Rise of the Ultramontanists (The Catholic Thing)
Constant Existential Threats – “Americans woke up to plenty of terrifying headlines Sunday after Iran lobbed more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. ‘The world stands at the brink of an all-out war,’ The Telegraph insisted.” If the World Sees Us Lack Resolve, ‘They Will Come with Guns Blazing,’ Johnson Warns (Washington Stand)
Atheists’ Religious Narratives – “Here is the crux of the matter: it is difficult for all my students to see that religion is not ‘a thing’ that exists between the four walls of a church.” Why Teach Atheism at a Catholic University? (Church Life Journal)
An Ongoing Battle – “View the defiance not as malice, but as potency seeking expression, actualization, fulfillment.” Hey parents: Aquinas will help you get through those grueling years (Aleteia)
Marian and Petrine Charisms Properly Understood – “When he criticized what he called the ‘masculinization’ of the Church Balthasar was in no way criticizing the reservation of the priesthood to men, but rather, the trend toward an excessive bureaucratization of the Church.” Spinning Balthasar (What We Need Now)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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With President Joe Biden at the helm of a national security apparatus trying to keep tensions in the Mideast from boiling over, and former president Donald Trump focused on his trial in the hush money case, now is a good time to start looking at the down-ballot races that will likely affect the nation one way or the other in significant, if not equally, profound ways.
The GOP majority in the House of Representatives is razor thin and by week’s end, when Wisconsin Rep. Mike Galagher’s resignation takes effect, Speaker Mike Johnson will have exactly one vote to spare. In a parliamentary system, with strong parties, a narrow margin helps enforce party loyalty. In today’s GOP caucus, with the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threatening to bring down the speaker if he moves forward on bipartisan legislation, the ensuing chaos has led to a mounting number of GOP members of Congress declining to run for reelection. That means even more contests will be in play come November than usual.
The New York Times recently looked at some races that are expected to be close and might determine control of the House chamber. They rightly note that more Republican incumbents, 17, represent districts that Biden won in 2020 than Democratic incumbents, 5, who represent districts Trump won.
As pollster Nate Cohn explained to The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner after the 2022 midterms, two issues, democracy and abortion, helped keep Democratic losses down that year. If abortion was on the ballot in a state, such as Michigan, it boosted Democratic turnout. I have written previously about the uneven political effects of abortion and why Democrats should be careful not to overplay their hand on the issue.
Swing states, however, were all stronger than expected for the Democrats in part because swing voters turned against radical MAGA candidates. “Democracy is clearly something concentrated in battleground states in which Stop the Steal candidates would have had the power to subvert national elections,” Cohn observed.
Looking at the results in New York, Cohn added:
The Republicans not only benefitted from the absence of democracy or abortion as issues, they succeeded at refocussing the electorate on something else, due to effective statewide campaigns that drew voters’ attention to crime or education or whatever. But that was only possible because this ultra-high-stakes set of issues, such as the future of democracy, wasn’t at play. I don’t believe that anyone seriously believed, for instance, that Lee Zeldin was going to overturn the 2024 Presidential result in New York.
Cohn also pointed to data surveyed by the Albany Times Union which showed that GOP turnout in 2022 was at presidential, not midterm, election levels, while Democratic turnout lagged. Four of the House seats Democrats lost in 2022 were in New York. How was that possible?
Jim Brennan at the Gotham Gazette noted some bone-headed mistakes the Democrats made in 2022 in the Empire State. For example, after enacting a tax cut, Gov. Kathy Hochul sent the checks to voters in June, rather than in October, a violation of Politics 101.
Democrats also had been moving hard to the left in recent years. In 2018, the highest-ranking New Yorker in the House, Rep. Joe Crowley, was knocked off in a primary upset by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2020, longtime Rep. Eliot Engel was beaten in a primary by Jamaal Bowman, who went on to easily win election in November. Both members of “the Squad” won re-election in their heavily Democratic districts in 2022, but both Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman are being challenged now in the Democratic primaries.
The Democrats control the legislature in Albany but they did not use their power to toss out a redistricting map put forward by a bipartisan commission, a map that only tinkered with the district lines. GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, who narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Rep. Sean Maloney in 2022, joked about the maps ruining the chances of his expected Democratic opponent on X, formerly Twitter: “There goes Mondaire Jones’s campaign for Congress.”
These congressional districts in the suburbs and exurbs of New York City are also likely to support GOP candidates who have not wavered on their support for Israel. As I discussed in analyzing the media coverage of the Michigan primary, GOP attack ads on the subject of Israel’s war for Gaza will likely start with video of celebrations in the West Bank and Gaza on 9/11. That will be devastating in the New York suburbs.
Looking back at the 2022 results, it seems the leaders of New York’s Democratic Party have some explaining to do. Elections are won by candidates and by issues but they are also won by old-fashioned organizing. When four of the House seats Democrats lost in 2022 came from a state like New York, you have to suspect that the party stopped doing the grunt work of knocking on doors, making sure people are registered, driving them to the polls if needed, and all the other things a party needs to do to make sure its voters turn out.
The Cook Political Report states that there are 11 toss-up races in which the Democrat is the incumbent and 11 in which the Republican is. It doesn’t get much closer than that!
The consequences of these contests are only marginally less important than the presidential race. If Joe Biden wins reelection, a GOP-controlled House could make it impossible for him to enact meaningful legislation. If Trump wins, a GOP-controlled House would be a rubber stamp. These House races matter. And, at this point, it looks like control of the lower chamber couldn’t be more up for grabs if it was a basketball.
Though most college campus conversations about food are often students griping about dining hall meals, an April 9 panel discussion at St. Mary’s College carefully explored the issues of food waste and how the future of food could be different.
“Urban Food Waste: Environmental, Social and Spiritual Dimensions” brought input from four people working closely and locally with food.
Sally Geislar, assistant professor of environmental studies at St. Mary’s, introduced the panelists: Abbie Kawalec, a junior environmental studies major working at the college’s sustainable farm; Karim Tinoco, a kitchen program manager from the nearby University of Notre Dame; Jim Conklin, executive director of Cultivate Food Rescue, a local food rescue organization; and Franciscan Fr. Daniel Horan, director of St. Mary’s Center for the Study of Spirituality.
Geislar also offered a brief overview of growing global concerns about food waste.
“We see,” she said, “that 40% of all food grown around the world for human consumption is wasted. In the developed world, the majority of this waste occurs at the point of retail and in the home. In fact, most households in the U.S. waste between 15 and 20% of the food that they take home from the grocery store, consequently losing thousands of dollars each year.”
“This high level of food waste is occurring alongside high levels of food insecurity,” she added. “In 2022, nearly 13% of people living in the U.S. were suffering from food insecurity and more than 7 million children were living in food insecure households. Unfortunately, these troubles are exacerbated for communities of color.”
Geislar told the audience that speakers would share what they have learned about food, but would also comment on selected film clips being shown from “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story.” The film is a 75-minute 2014 documentary about a Canadian couple who decided to eat only discarded food for six months. Geislar recommended that everyone later view the entire documentary, available on YouTube.
Some clips focused on the plight of farmers forced to leave as much as 70% of their produce in fields because it was slightly blemished or didn’t meet retail standards for grocery chains. Other clips explored food scarcity solutions and the environmental impact of food waste, especially greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.
“Something that’s not talked about enough in the food waste conversation is the responsibility that retail stores have,” said Tinoco, referring to a clip about slightly blemished produce left to rot.
“We should hold these companies accountable for these decisions that contribute to discarded and wasted food,” he added. “But we haven’t done that. We focus a lot on food waste in large institutions and restaurants, but there’s a lot of waste beforehand that trickles down from the standards of retail grocery chains.”
Conklin agreed with Tinoco. But he pointed out that American consumers must share the blame with retail chains.
“As American consumers,” Conklin pointed out, “we create the standards. We don’t shop at grocery stores where the produce doesn’t look like it’s the highest quality. Nonetheless, we can change those attitudes and can lobby grocery stores to be more responsible with food.”
Conklin then said that consumers should ask their congressional representatives to support federal legislation around food date labeling. Many people are confused about what it means when they see a “best by” or “use by” or “discard by” date on canned or boxed food items, he said.
“There’s a bill in Congress now which is called the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 (H.R. 3159). It directs [the Department of Health and Human Services] to use two dates: a ‘best by’ date and a ‘discard date,’ ” said Conklin. “This legislation has been before Congress 12 times, but it’s not getting passed. We need national food date labels that are clear to the consumers because some states have no regulations, and some states have many. It’s confusing for consumers.”
Horan, who also teaches religious studies and philosophy at St. Mary’s, told the audience that Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, reminded the world that “everything is connected.” Horan also mentioned how the pope frequently criticizes “throwaway culture.”
“This is more likely to be a problem in affluent cultures like ours,” Horan said of the food waste crisis. “We are so disconnected from the source of the food that we consume.”
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Kawalec, an environmental studies major, talked about what she and other students have learned at the college’s sustainable 5-acre farm at the north end of the campus. The farm produces fresh fruits and vegetables, which are shared with local families who are food insecure, students, staff, and also area homeless shelters.
This St. Mary’s farm is also “home” to 160 chickens. They are well-fed, she said, but fed only with dining hall food scraps meticulously rescued by St. Mary’s dining hall staff and students.
“We get about 42 dozen eggs a week,” Abbie reported, smiling broadly. “We’re able to get the eggs to food insecure people in the community through our markets. And students take dozens of the eggs and cook breakfast once a month at Our Lady of the Road, another outreach for the homeless in the city.”
Tinoco agreed that there are wonderful lessons to learn from raising food properly. It can help us prepare for a healthier future where food is not wasted, he said.
“The people who created fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides years ago,” he pointed out, “were concerned about how growing populations of people needed to be fed. These agricultural supplements were created to produce more food, though they’ve also created environmental problems.”
Nodding his head about the need to do things in a new way, Conklin remarked: “One of the stats that I grapple with is that in this country, we waste enough food to feed 100 million people. And we have 35 million people who are classified as food insecure. So, it is possible to end hunger in this country three times over!”
“We need to combine sustainable farming practices with mass production to feed the whole population,” he said. “We have to redirect that excess food. But it can be done.”
More than a year after the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was confirmed, the archdiocese is back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A clergy sexual abuse claimant has filed a motion alleging church officials are violating a key non-monetary agreement with abuse survivors, about how the archdiocese lists priests accused of abuse.
The reorganization plan was approved in December 2022 and involved payment of some $121.5 million into a settlement trust and establishment of a new public archive of clergy sexual abuse documents.
According to the new motion filed by her attorneys, Mela LaJeunesse was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Richard Spellman beginning in approximately 1957. LaJeunesse eventually disclosed and received treatment for her abuse beginning in 2016, she filed a sexual abuse proof of claim in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case in May 2019, and she was compensated through the archdiocese’s settlement trust in January 2023.
Thus far, however, Spellman’s name has not been added to the archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clergy abusers, which LaJeunesse and her attorneys claim violates one of the non-monetary covenants agreed to by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. In addition, their motion claims “more than fifty additional clergy” identified as abusers in the bankruptcy proof of claims have also not been added to the archdiocese’s listing of abusers.
“The Archdiocese has always considered itself to be the sole arbiter of truth with respect to abuse allegations,” Levi Monagle, one of LaJeunesse’s attorneys, said in a news release issued when the motion was filed Feb. 20. “Our client’s position is that the Archdiocese explicitly forfeited that right with respect to priests like Father Spellman.”
Monagle’s law firm represented more than one-third of the bankruptcy case’s approximately 400 sex abuse claimants, and its attorneys were instrumental in working with the archdiocese to establish a future public archive of clergy sexual abuse documents at the University of New Mexico.
Conflicting interpretations of a 142-word paragraph in the non-monetary covenants, entitled “Publication of Accused List,” and one key sentence in the middle of the paragraph, are at the heart of the dispute. Referring to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe as “ASF,” the sentence states, “ASF will update the list to include any clergy who are identified in any proof of claim filed in the Chapter 11 Case (unless the identification has been withdrawn in any amendment or supplementation to the Proof of Claim).”
In her motion, LaJeunesse’s attorneys argue the covenant is titled “Publication of Accused List” rather than “Publication of Credibly Accused List,” and “the plain language” of the covenant suggests the archdiocese committed itself to listing any clergy who are identified in any proof of claim filed in the Chapter 11 case (emphasis from the motion).
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s credibly accused listing is currently divided into two separate lists — one for individuals who abused in the archdiocese and have been deemed credibly accused by archdiocesan officials, and a second for individuals who worked in the archdiocese but were deemed credibly accused by other dioceses.
Chancery officials with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, along with Thomas Walker, one of its bankruptcy attorneys, did not respond to emails sent from NCR on April 5 and April 9 seeking comment about the legal dispute.
Walker, however, did respond to Monagle in an email exchange in July 2023, with copies of those emails included with LaJeunesse’s motion. Walker also explained the archdiocese’s interpretation of the covenant in a response filed in bankruptcy court on Good Friday.
“Credibly accused is determined by the Archbishop in consultation with the Independent Review Board,” Walker stated in an email July 24, 2023. “It is not determined by the survivor who made the accusation. The accusation in a proof of claim gives rise to the requirement that the accused be considered for the credibly accused list but it does not mandate inclusion on the list.”
In his response filed in bankruptcy court March 29, Walker maintained that as an individual claimant, LaJeunesse lacks standing to seek enforcement of any of the terms of the non-monetary covenants. Instead, Walker said, that belongs to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which negotiated the covenants with the archdiocese, or “any trust created for the benefit” of sexual abuse claimants.
Walker argued the non-monetary covenant does not require the automatic inclusion of any clergy member identified in a proof of claim, and he cited legal precedent that confirmed Chapter 11 plans are interpreted “under the rules governing the interpretation of contracts,” and he also cited New Mexico law regarding the interpretation of contracts which may include the context in which the agreement was made.
Walker and archdiocesan officials did not respond to a question posed about the number of new names of individuals identified in proof of claims that have been added to the archdiocese’s credibly accused abusers listing. NCR compared the archdiocese’s latest revised list of Feb. 19, 2024, to a previous list released nearly five years before on March 8, 2019, the same day the bar date deadline was set for proof of claims. That earlier list can be found on the website of BishopAccountability.org, a clergy abuse tracking database.
The comparison indicates that after more than four years in bankruptcy court, after the filing of more than 400 proofs of claims, and “more than fifty additional clergy” named as alleged abusers in the proof of claims — as asserted in LaJeunesse’s motion filed Feb. 20, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has added only four additional names to its list of credibly accused abusers. There were 79 names on the list updated by the archdiocese in March 2019. In contrast, there are 83 names on the list updated in February 2024.
In an April 6 email to NCR, Monagle said he thought the archdiocese has “had sufficient time — years, in most instances — to investigate the credibility of the allegations against the 50-plus individuals identified in Proofs of Claim but not publicly acknowledged by the Archdiocese as even alleged abusers” (emphasis his).
“We have only asked after Fr. Spellman, in this case, but can it really be the case that the Archdiocese has now investigated the allegations against all 50-plus individuals noted in our Motion, and has deemed all of those allegations to lack credibility?” the lawyer asked. “I struggle to believe such a thing.”
Monagle said he also “cannot claim to understand” why the archdiocese — or its insurance companies — would authorize payment for more than 50 abuse claims they didn’t believe to be credible.
“If we were only talking about one or two claims, I suppose there could be an appeal to pragmatism, to moving ahead without getting sidetracked by a dispute of minimal scale,” he said.
“But 50-plus claims represents over 12.5% of the full body of creditors, which would in turn represent approximately $15 million of what was ultimately a $121.5 million settlement pool. That would be a tremendous amount of money to pay out on claims that lacked basic credibility, and I do not believe it is a common practice of any insurance company to pay out money on claims that lack basic credibility.”
Monagle said of LaJeunesse, “Our client hopes that her public stand on this issue can spark important debate in the Church and its communities as to what these lists are for, how they should be constituted, and how they should be held out to the public.”
A preliminary hearing was held before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma April 3. Thuma scheduled oral arguments in the case for May 15.
The bishop leading the U.S. Catholic Church’s response on migration issues said that both major political parties are inflaming anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.
“Both parties [are] becoming anti-immigration,” said El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, speaking April 11 at a conference at the Catholic University of America.
“[We] can’t just say ‘Catholics are Democrats,’ or ‘Catholics are Republicans’ on the immigration issue,” said the prelate, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee. “I almost feel like we’ve lost both of them.”
Seitz has long supported efforts to care for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and recently said officials in his state of Texas are militarizing the border and criminalizing migrants. He made the comments during the “Responding to Changing Realities at the U.S. Border and Beyond” conference, which featured several Catholics in ministry at the border.
Asked by an audience member how he would advise Catholics to vote in the 2024 presidential election, Seitz said that while a candidate’s policy positions are important, it’s also important to consider their personal character. “Policy positions change according to political winds,” he said.
The conference was co-hosted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The daylong event delved into the history of Catholic response to immigration to the U.S., its connection to Gospel teachings urging Christians to “welcome the stranger,” and modern-day responses toward those trying to put that teaching into practice.
U.S., Holy Cross Sr. Sharlet Wagner said that in her mission to help newcomers start new lives one of the biggest challenges she sees migrants and refugees face is the “anti-immigrant sentiment in our country.”
Politicians are “using immigrants as political footballs,” said Wagner, executive director of the Newcomer Network at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington. She said immigration into the U.S. gives Catholics the chance to practice some of the church’s core teachings.
“I want to talk a little bit about the opportunity we have, which is the opportunity to be prophetic,” she said. “I hesitate to say that because I tend to shy away from self-proclaimed prophets, but I do believe this influx of newcomers gives us an opportunity to be prophetic in the best sense of that word.”
“Prophets point out to society where it’s going astray,” said Wagner. “Prophets speak the truth about God and about what God is calling us to. Prophets call us to do better and to be better.”
“When we hear about the immigration crisis in this country, I don’t think of it as an immigration crisis so much as a moral crisis,” she said. “I believe the situation of immigrants in the United States at this time presents us with the opportunity as well as the obligation to be prophets, to point out where we’re going wrong in our treatment of the stranger.”
Sr. Tracey Horan, associate director of the KINO Border Initiative, highlighted the work of people trying to help immigrants on the frontlines of the U.S.-Mexico border. Horan, of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, said it’s hard to keep track of rapidly changing immigration policies and rules and figure out how to help people in need.
“Confusion and uncertainty go hand in hand with policy changes that happen and that are complex because they affect people from different countries of origin differently,” Horan said. “Helping people understand what that means for them is a big challenge.”
Oblate Fr. Leo Perez is director of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, which funds pastoral projects at dioceses in the Caribbean and Latin America. He said that because of the scale of immigration in the Americas, “we do relief work” in emergency situations, which has led to him to witness up close mass movements of people in desperate situations.
“My work is where people are beginning their journey before they cross the border. … we talk about the journey north, but some people, they start the journey going south,” he said. “If you’ve gone to South America recently, in any capital city you go to, there’s thousands of immigrants. … they’re Haitians, they’re Cubans, they’re Venezuelans.”
Fleeing political, economic or situations of mass violence, most aim to stay in countries where they speak the language, Perez said, but sometimes the “destination changes because of changing economies and other situations.”
Perez’s office oversees the U.S. bishops’ Collection for the Church in Latin America. He spoke of the collection’s aid for the border city of Cúcuta, Colombia, near a bridge Venezuelans cross toward Colombia.
He remembered being on a visit to the bridge and seeing a Venezuelan man there, who was pulling his sick daughter in a little cart, and stopped to ask another priest for help. The priest gave him money for medicine and then looked at the child.
“I don’t think the dad had looked at her in a while. She was jaundiced and it looked like she was in her last few hours. The priest immediately took out his holy oils” and anointed her, Perez said, trying to hold in tears. “I saw it in the dad’s eyes. He realized she was done.”
Yet migrants are often portrayed as a threat, not as people fleeing horrific situations and any attempt to talk about them in homilies as such is often met with attacks, “being called a communist and all that,” Perez said.
While surges in migration do occur, Seitz said, portrayals usually do not accurately reflect the situation on the ground.
“I don’t think it’s nearly as overwhelming a situation as it’s often painted — ‘crisis on the border,’ that kind of thing,” he said. “But it does call for everyone, the different elements in society, to step up, and if we do, we find the capacity to do amazing things.”
Sr. Deidre Griffin, an immigration attorney and member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, was one of the event’s approximately 250 participants. She said she wanted to see a more “publicly recognizable message” from a wider swath of bishops from around the country in support of immigrants, urging more help “on the ground,” in more U.S. parishes.
“My concern is that the pressure of the current political situation will stifle that. Rather than us choosing to be prophetic like Sr. Sharlet was talking about and to do more,” she said. “I know Bishop Seitz is leading, but my concern is that other bishops around the country are not taking it on.”
Seitz said the country has a choice in how to respond to migrants. “This is a key moment, and we will either thrive or not thrive as a nation in the future,” he said.
During his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis focuses on the fourth and final cardinal virtue of temperance, saying that our ability to have power over ourselves will help us savour all we have in life, in a much more meaningful and joyful way, akin to sipping a glass of wine, rather than drinking it all at once.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Our ability to master ourselves and moderate our passions, can lead us toward true happiness….
Pope Francis offered this reminder during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square.
This week, the Pope continued his catechetical series on vices and virtues. After months dedicated to the vices, he transitioned to discussing virtues, thus far focusing on prudence, patience, justice, fortitude, and, now, temperance.
The Catechism describes the cardinal virtue of temperance as “the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods.”
Moreover, the Catechism says that temperance “ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable,” noting the temperate person “directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion, and does not follow the base desires, but restrains the appetites.”
With the other three cardinal virtues, this virtue shares a history that goes far back in time and does not only belong to Christians.
The Pope recalled Aristotle’s reflecting on enkráteia, the Greek term literally means “power over oneself,” as the great philosopher studied virtues as he explored the concept of happiness.
Over time, the Holy Father recalled, temperance was understood as one’s “capacity for self-mastery,” the “art of not letting oneself be overcome by rebellious passions.”
Temperance, the Pope suggested, is the virtue of the right measure.
Pope Francis at General Audience
Faced with pleasures, the Pope said the temperate person acts judiciously.
“The free course of impulses and total license accorded to pleasures end up backfiring on us, plunging us into a state of boredom,” the Pope said. “How many people who have wanted to try everything voraciously have found themselves losing the taste for everything!”
Given this, he said, we should enjoy moderately.
“For example, to appreciate a good wine,” the Pope observed, is “to taste it in small sips,” rather than drinking it all at once.
“To appreciate a good wine, to taste it in small sips, is better than swallowing it all in one go”
The temperate person, Pope Francis said, knows how to weigh words and dose them well. “He does not allow a moment’s anger to ruin relationships and friendships that can then only be rebuilt with difficulty,” especially, the Pope said, “in family life, where inhibitions are lower, we all run the risk of not keeping tensions, irritations and anger in check.”
He acknowledged that they know the time to speak and to be silent, both in the right measure, knowing how to control their own irascibility.
“This does not mean we always find him with a peaceful and smiling face,” the Pope said, recognizing that at times it is necessary to be indignant, “but always in the right way.”
A word of rebuke, he said, is at times healthier than a sour, rancorous silence. “The temperate person knows that nothing is more uncomfortable than correcting another person, but he also knows that it is necessary.”
“In some cases, the temperate person succeeds in holding extremes together,” the Pope said, stating, “he affirms absolute principles, asserts non-negotiable values, but also knows how to understand people and shows empathy for them.”
The gift of the temperate person, the Holy Father said, is being “balanced,” which the Pope described as precious and rare.
When “everything in our world pushes to excess,” the Pope said that temperance “combines well with Gospel values such as smallness, discretion, modesty, meekness.”
Pope Francis concluded, by clarifying that temperance does not make one “grey and joyless,” but “on the contrary,” it “lets one enjoy the goods of life better.”
Pope Francis at General Audience
Pope Francis remembers the ‘self-sacrificing’ pastor of the late Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Sáenz, Archbishop Emeritus of Bogotà, Colombia, who passed away at age 91 on Monday.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Pope Francis mourned Cardinal Rubiano Sáenz, Archbishop Emeritus of Bogota, who passed away at age 91 on 15 April, in a telegram of condolences he sent in Spanish to the current Archbishop of the Colombian capital, Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio.
In his message, the Pope expresses his sadness for the late Cardinal’s passing, as he offered his “heartfelt condolences” to all the members of the local Church,his family and all those taking part in the funeral rite.
“As I offer suffrages for the eternal repose of this self-sacrificing Pastor who, by his dedication and work, gave his life for the good of the Church,” the Pope reassured, “I entrust him to the maternal intercession of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá.”
The Holy Father concluded by imparting his Apostolic Blessing, as a sign of faith and hope in the Risen Christ.
Cardinal Rubiano Sainz, who had been elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in 2001, had served three terms as president of the Colombian Bishops’ Conference, and served as Archbishop of Bogotà from 1994 until his retirement in 2010.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).
A federal appeals court has blocked a West Virginia law titled the “Save Women’s Sports Act” that prohibits biological males from competing in female sports in the state.
The 2-1 decision was issued by a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The decision extends an already existing block on the law and sends the case back to a lower court for further consideration.
This is the latest development in B.P.J v. West Virginia State Board of Education, a case in which a 13-year-old child who identifies as a girl is alleging that the West Virginia law violates Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
The 13-year-old, who is a biological male named Becky Pepper-Jackson, is being represented by the ACLU of West Virginia. Pepper-Jackson is seeking to compete in a school track and cross country program.
The Fourth Circuit Court said that the lower court, which had upheld the West Virginia law in a January ruling, erred by ruling to allow the law to go into effect.
The law, signed by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in April 2021, declares that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex” because “there are inherent differences between biological males and biological females.”
The law states that allowing biological males in competitive female sports would “displace” female athletes from those spaces.
The circuit court’s Tuesday ruling said that Pepper-Jackson has demonstrated that if implemented the law “would treat her worse than people to whom she is similarly situated, deprive her of any meaningful athletic opportunities, and do so on the basis of sex.”
Based on this, the panel ruled that the case be “remanded with instructions to enter summary judgment for B.P.J. on her Title IX claims and for further proceedings (including remedial proceedings) consistent with this opinion.”
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is urging Parliament to adopt a stricter prohibition on surrogacy — a practice that has been illegal in the country for two decades and can already result in jail time and financial penalties.
Speaking at a conference in Rome, Meloni called surrogacy “inhuman” and referred to it as “uterus renting.” She encouraged the Italian Senate to pass legislation that would make it a crime for Italians to procure surrogate parenting abroad — a proposal that has already passed the parliament’s lower chamber. Under current law, surrogacy is only illegal when done within the country’s borders.
“No one can convince me that it is an act of freedom to rent one’s womb,” Meloni said at the conference, according to NBC News.
“No one can convince me that it is an act of love to consider children as an over-the-counter product in a supermarket,” Meloni added. “I still consider the practice of uterus renting to be inhuman; I support the proposed law making it a universal crime.”
The messaging against surrogacy promoted by Meloni, who is a Catholic, is in line with the arguments recently made by the Vatican regarding the Church’s opposition to surrogacy.
In a document published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on April 8, the Vatican body argues that the practice of surrogacy violates both “the dignity of the child” and “the dignity of the woman.”
“The woman is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the document reads. “This contrasts in every way with the fundamental dignity of every human being and with each person’s right to be recognized always individually and never as an instrument for another.”
In the United States, both paid and unpaid surrogacy are legal in almost every state. Although the legal specifics vary from state to state, only two states expressly prohibit paid surrogacy: Nebraska and Louisiana. Unpaid surrogacy in those states is still legal in certain cases.
Michigan had prohibited paid surrogacy until earlier this month when Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation to legalize and regulate paid surrogacy. This reversed a 36-year-old prohibition on the practice.
The country’s liberalized approach to surrogacy differs vastly from most European countries, the majority of which either prohibit surrogacy altogether or allow only unpaid surrogacy.
In Italy, for example, both paid surrogacy and unpaid surrogacy are illegal. Other European countries that ban all forms of surrogacy include Spain, Germany, France, Finland, Norway, Austria, and Switzerland, among others.
Numerous countries in Europe allow unpaid surrogacy in some cases but always prohibit paid surrogacy. This includes the United Kingdom, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Greece.
Only a handful of countries in Europe allow paid surrogacy, such as Ukraine and Russia. A few countries, such as Ireland, do not have specific laws that either prohibit paid surrogacy or permit it.
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2024 / 16:22 pm (CNA).
The Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is set to change federal regulations regarding pregnant workers’ fairness to mandate employers make “reasonable accommodations,” including granting leave, for workers to obtain abortions.
The new rule, which is set to take effect 60 days from its publication on April 19, is part of the commission’s efforts to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), according to a final EEOC rule change announcement.
The final rule expands the scope of accommodations that employers must make for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” to also include workers’ decisions about “having or choosing not to have an abortion.”
The rule applies to all public and private employers with 15 or more workers and is contingent on the accommodations not presenting an “undue hardship on the operation of the business of the covered entity.”
The commission said the rule change is part of its effort to “carry out the law” in accordance with the PWFA, which was passed in 2022.
The 19th, a pro-abortion nonprofit, celebrated the rule change, saying that, “at a minimum,” it means employers must provide unpaid time off for abortion.
After first announcing the planned change in the Federal Register in August 2023, the commission allowed 60 days for public comment. During that time the commission received 54,000 comments against the inclusion of abortion and 40,000 in support.
Despite the 54,000 comments against it, the EEOC said it would move forward with the rule change. The commission said that though it “recognizes these are sincere, deeply held convictions and are often part of an individual’s religious beliefs,” it believes that the decision to include abortion is “consistent with the plain language of the statute, congressional intent, and federal courts’ interpretation of the statutory text.”
“The commission agrees with comments expressing support for inclusion of abortion in the proposed definition of ‘pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions’ for which a qualified employee could receive an accommodation, absent undue hardship,” the EEOC said.
EEOC Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal said the change is consistent with the PWFA and “advances the promise that pregnant and postpartum workers should not have to choose between their health and a paycheck.”
The PWFA was supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) when it was being considered by Congress, despite some concerns at the time that the bill could be used to force employers to pay for abortion expenses.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky expressed such concerns, with a spokesperson telling CNA at the time that “the bill could force religious employers to provide accommodations that arise from an abortion, which could violate the free exercise of their religious beliefs.”
One of the comments submitted to the EEOC against the inclusion of abortion was a 20-page joint statement issued by the USCCB and the Catholic University of America.
Signed by three USCCB attorneys and Catholic University President Peter Kilpatrick, the statement said the rule change presents dangers to human life, religious liberty, and free speech.
“In passing the PWFA,” the statement said, “Congress had no intention to create conscience problems for employers.”
“Although the USCCB and Catholic University share the goals of better supporting pregnant women and mothers in the workplace, we are deeply concerned about the EEOC’s insertion of a right to abortion-related accommodations into a legal regime where it has no place,” the joint statement said.
The commission claimed that concerns about employers’ religious objections were unwarranted because, it noted, “nothing in the PWFA shall be construed ‘by regulation or otherwise, to require an employer-sponsored health plan to pay for or cover any particular item, procedure, or treatment.’”
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Joseph Ratzinger didn’t want to be pope. He didn’t even want to be a bishop. When, in 1977, the apostolic nuncio informed him of his appointment as archbishop of Munich and Freising, he first requested to consult with his confessor, Johann Auer, before accepting. Auer told Ratzinger, much to the German priest’s surprise, that he must accept. So Ratzinger did, and, remarkably, was designated a cardinal by Pope Paul VI later that year.
But Ratzinger kept trying (without success) to walk away from leadership positions and return to the corridors of academia where he felt most at home. When offered a position with the Congregation for Catholic Education, he declined. He objected to being appointed by Pope John Paul II as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) in 1981, but accepted. Multiple times, including after a 1991 brain hemorrhage, he attempted to retire from the position, until John Paul II told Ratzinger he would hear no more of resignations or retirements.
When Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005—a decision he labeled “unreasonable”—he remarked: “The thought of the guillotine occurred to me: Now it falls down and hits you.” All of this, notes Richard G. DeClue, Jr., in his excellent new book The Mind of Benedict XVI: A Theology of Communion, helps contextualize and explain the decision by Ratzinger, now known as Benedict XVI, to resign from the papacy in 2013. Contrary to the absurd public image promoted by left-leaning (and even some Catholic) media that Benedict XVI was “God’s Rottweiler,” a Putin-like autocrat, and an “ecclesial climber,” the bookish German theologian throughout his life was outspoken in his preference for a religious vocation that kept him in the library stacks.
And yet, as DeClue’s book demonstrates, Benedict XVI’s allegiance to God always seemed to trump his personal preferences. When called to serve, Benedict, even if reluctant or resistant, ultimately went where he was ordered. And, though one might not have expected such qualities from a professional academic with more than fifteen hundred articles and books to his name, it is perhaps humble courage that most accurately defines his incredible life and mind.
DeClue’s chapter-long biography of Benedict XVI is a fascinating one. He cites many observers who noted that his career was defined by a humble “monastic simplicity,” the German cleric giving away much of his salary to those in need. While CDF prefect, Lufthansa once offered him a new suitcase, because the cardinal’s conspicuously decrepit one was “bad for business.” Though an admirer of St. Thomas Aquinas, he was decidedly not a Thomist, his unique theological vision owing more to St. Augustine and St. Bonaventure. Indeed, Ratzinger’s earliest academic work was on those two Doctors of the Church. Writes DeClue:
Benedict XVI was always attracted to the cooperation of a robust intellectual search for truth with the full force of a loving heart expressed in profoundly personal terms that he found in St. Augustine.
Though the great German theologian never published a systematic theology, DeClue argues that Benedict XVI’s thought is “fundamentally cohesive,” and can be best understood by the word communio, meaning communion, but also the name of an international scholarly journal he co-founded more than fifty years ago. By this word, the intention is for theology to be grounded in a faith that seeks to know and love God, and is done in intimate communion with the Church. Thus, Benedict XVI bluntly argued that “theology either exists in the church and from the church, or it does not exist at all.” And that theology should be placed at the service of the Church, to help others better understand the Catholic Faith.
For Benedict XVI, that typically meant having to wade into the various theological and philosophical controversies of the late twentieth century, where he exhibited a tenacious courage to speak uncomfortable and unpopular truths. In the face of a modern biblical scholarship deeply skeptical of the original sources, the German theologian and scholar offered an approach that engaged with both patristic sources and contemporary scholars, while addressing the errors of modernism. This is most visible in his popular three-part series on the Gospels.
Benedict XVI charitably dialogued with Protestantism and its best scholars, but reserved hard words for Luther, who he accused of inaugurating “a new era of antagonism to philosophy for the sake of the unadulterated Word of God.” In contrast, the late pope’s theology is noticeably influenced by philosophical reflection. As DeClue explains:
Theology is faith seeking understanding. As such, it necessarily involves rational reflection, which inherently involves some sort of philosophical thinking. Even those opposed to it have not been able to avoid it.
In the chapter on ecclesiology, DeClue cites Benedict XVI’s excellent, often fresh argumentation regarding Petrine primacy. “It is immediately striking that all the major groups of texts in the New Testament are acquainted with the subject of Peter,” the pope observes, “which is thereby proven to be a topic of universal significance whose importance cannot be restricted to a particular tradition limited to one person or place.” The German scholar also employs a rhetorically clever move in noting various prominent Protestant scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann and Adolf von Harnach, who recognized the centrality and primacy of Peter among the apostles. In another powerful retort to Protestants, he elsewhere notes that the concept of apostolic succession predates the recognition of the existence of the New Testament.
Yet Benedict XVI reserved his most pointed attacks for the skepticism and relativism of modernity. He pushed modern skeptics to contemplate the ramifications of their intellectual system, shorn as it is from any objective sense of morality, any means of articulating one moral or political vision as superior to any other, and any way to defend such a vision short of the (ultimately subjective) assertion of one will over another.
In response to these modern dead-ends, Benedict XVI consistently insisted on the primacy of love, which is “higher than mere thought.” This approach should not come as a surprise given the title of his first papal encyclical: Deus caritas est. Even more interesting, he argues that it is the Trinitarian God, whose being is both singular and a plurality, who answers the ancient philosophical questions of the one and the many. “Not only unity is divine; plurality, too, is something primordial and has its inner ground in God himself,” he wrote in his famous Introduction to Christianity, first published in 1968.
The Bavarian theologian attacked scientism and epistemological reductionism as the question-begging systems that they are, though he was himself deeply familiar with the latest scientific research across a host of disciplines. Indeed, Benedict XVI believed that recent advances in modern science, far from undermining belief in God, were consistently reinforcing belief in creation. “Belief in creation concerns the difference between nothing and something, while the idea of evolution examines the difference between something and something else,” he argued, explaining that evolution is simply incapable of disproving the idea of creation.
One of the late pope’s most memorable turns of phrase was what he called the “dictatorship of relativism.” Such an intellectual autocracy “does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s ego and desires.” In an impressive riposte to modern secularists and relativists, Benedict XVI struck at the heart of their own worldview, asking, “What is freedom?” For if freedom is simply the liberty to whatever one chooses, based on whatever morality, there can be no true society. “Community has no value whatever in itself but exists only to allow the individual to be himself.” Moreover, he argues, if there are no objective standards for values, then there seems no basis for elevating freedom as the preeminent value. Or, as DeClue summarizes: “If freedom is solely the fulfillment of the individual’s desires, then how could there be an objective standard to mediate between individuals’ competing desires?”
Himself an influential intellectual force at the Second Vatican Council, Benedict XVI nonetheless took issue with progressive interpretations of the Council that attempted (and often succeeded) in promoting dramatic innovations in the liturgy, liturgical music and ecclesial architecture. For example, he argued that the post-conciliar custom of the priest facing the people (versus populum) is based on historical inaccuracies and an inaccurate understanding of the Eucharist. Thus he urged a return to the custom of ad orientem to reemphasize the sacrificial, priestly, and Christological character of the Mass.
Sadly, the late pope’s views on the Mass have taken a hit under his successor, though given the popularity of more traditional liturgical forms among young Catholics, perhaps it will ultimately be Benedict XVI’s vision that will win out. That was his way: bravely fighting what often seemed like a losing battle against what Zygmunt Bauman calls “liquid modernity,” whether it be manifested in biblical scholarship, the fissiparous tendencies of Protestantism, or the intellectual nihilism of scientism.
Whatever the topic, he brought fresh, intellectually rigorous reflections that confounded his critics. In the foreword to The Mind of Benedict XVI, Fr. Emery de Gaál argues that the late pope, someday, should be declared a Doctor of the Church. If so, it would be a well-deserved title the humble, bookish Bavarian would not be able to escape.
The Mind of Benedict XVI: A Theology of Communion
By Richard G. DeClue, Jr.
Word on Fire, 2024
Hardcover, 349
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CNA Staff, Apr 16, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Louisiana legislators are advancing a measure to support women in crisis pregnancies by setting aside millions in funding for pregnancy resource centers and other social services, as part of a bill approved by the Louisiana Senate last month.
Republican Rep. Jack McFarland and Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews are co-sponsors of the legislation, which puts money set aside for Alternatives to Abortion toward the new Louisiana Pregnancy and Baby Initiative.
The program would increase the total spending on the Alternatives to Abortion program from $1 million this cycle to between $3 million and $5 million, beginning on July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.
According to the bill, SB 278, the initiative will “act as a statewide social service program to enhance and increase resources that promote childbirth instead of abortion for women facing unplanned pregnancies and to offer a full range of services, including pregnancy support.”
The Louisiana Senate passed the bill 34-3 on March 26, and it’s expected to pass in the House.
The initiative would include parenting classes and baby supplies such as diapers and cribs. It would also provide counseling and care coordination for mothers, referrals, and even classes on budgeting, job training, and stress management. These resources would be available to program participants for up to three years after the child’s birth.
The program services will not only be accessible for a pregnant mother; it’s meant to serve the biological father of an unborn child or even an adoptive parent of a young child (age 3 or younger).
Currently, abortion is only legal in Louisiana if the life of the mother is at risk, or if the child is diagnosed with a disability in utero or could be stillborn.
Jackson-Andrews, a pro-life Democrat who spoke at the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., in 2016, is the primary author of the bill.
She championed an amendment in 2020 that prevented Louisiana from enshrining a “right to abortion” in its state constitution and banned public funding of abortion. The Louisiana Pregnancy and Baby Initiative would be managed by a general contractor who would subcontract with existing nonprofit pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, maternity homes, and social service organizations “that promote childbirth instead of abortion,” the bill noted.
The money would also go toward marketing expenses so that mothers in need would be aware of the services, McFarland and Jackson-Andrews explained in the bill.
The initiative also has a transparency provision to require the nonprofit organization overseeing the program to report what services are offered and how many people are served.
Funds from the initiative cannot go toward performing or referring for abortions, nor toward any organizations that promote abortion.
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Ann Arbor, Michigan, Apr 16, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).
Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz told CNA that his monumental Stations of the Cross to be installed on the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando, Florida, is the fruit of nearly constant work over the last three years and is expected to draw thousands of visitors once completed this fall.
The 2,000-seat shrine is the closest Catholic church to Disney World in Orlando and is already well known for its striking works of sacred art. In addition, the church’s 17-acre tract features a spacious esplanade and rosary garden.
To all of this will be added a Gospel Garden that will feature massive bronze Stations of the Cross sculpted by Schmalz. Some of the stations are slated to be 30 feet wide and as high as 14 feet tall, weighing thousands of pounds. Inauguration of the project is expected to take place around November, although a precise date has yet to be determined.
“Some of Christ’s parables are embedded in the sculptures. In the foreground of each station is the principal scene, but in the background are the teachings of Jesus as well as symbols,” Schmalz told CNA. “It is an unusual version of the stations in the sense that it is filled with the New Testament. For instance, station 13 has more than 100 saints. It is unlike any other sculpture I have ever created.”
Schmalz explained that the 14 stations will be his most complex sculpture yet, second only to his acclaimed Angels Unawares that is now in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican and at Catholic University of America.
Now that his creative clay sculpting for the project is complete, Schmalz said that casting the final sculptures in bronze remains to be done by a specialized foundry. Initial installation of the bronzes should begin this autumn in Orlando.
Orlando may be an especially fruitful locale for this work of evangelization, given that more than 58 million people throng each year to Disney World alone.
Speaking to the importance of visual arts, especially sculpture, Schmalz said that unlike film, “sculpture placed in a city center is like a film running 24/7 year after year. When I do a sculpture, I am conscious of the fact that it is frozen theater being performed and has to be right.”
“I wanted it to be called the Gospel Garden rather than Stations of the Cross because when speaking of the stations, you are bringing your ideas of what they are. For some, it might be a boring experience. In many churches, the stations were made without much care. I wanted to make stations that are more intense than what is seen on film; so intense, that if you are not Catholic, you would want to become Catholic. You would want to learn more,” Schmalz said.
Because so many children come to nearby Disney World, Schmalz also made certain that plenty of children appear in the work and see themselves in it. Saying that a sculpture such as the immense Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, may make viewers disconnected from its theme, he said: “When I started making the stations, I wanted them to be life-size. I wanted people to touch the hands of Jesus who is reaching out after falling with the cross.”
Reflecting on the challenges faced by artists working on religious themes, he said: “Unless you do something spectacular, it’s going to be invisible. That’s how we are today. We have a society today where the Catholic Church is competing with mainstream culture. We have to be tough and strong. Even though we are dealing with the Gospels, with eternal truths, the execution often falls short.”
“When I was growing up, I heard the famous quote attributed to Michaelangelo that the sculpture is in the stone and the artist’s job is to release it. I believe that in some Platonic sphere or paradise there are great masterpieces, so it’s my job as a sculptor to pull them to earth for people to see,” Schmalz said.
Schmalz recounted that at age 19, he dropped out of a prestigious art school in Canada. “Pope John Paul II spoke of the culture of death. If you really want to see that, go to an art school. It is nihilism on acid.”
Rather than clash with his instructors, Schmalz left for schooling on his own but with traditional masterworks as his guide to create Christian art.
“I was the most radical artist in Canada,” he said, “because what I was doing with representing Jesus and the Virgin Mary was the only thing that was not allowed in an art gallery. There they wouldn’t even call it art.”
“Just like the Impressionists of the 1800s, who weren’t accepted in the salons of the day, Christian art is not wanted in today’s salons,” Schmalz noted.
Schmalz came to world attention with his Homeless Jesus statue, which was first installed at Regis College in Toronto in 2013. The bronze depicts a human figure reclining on a park bench, which has been mistaken at times for a living person. Upon close inspection, viewers can see the marks of the crucifixion on its feet. Copies have since been installed in Capernaum, Israel; Fátima, Portugal; as well as many cities, including Detroit and Pope Francis’ native Buenos Aires, Argentina. Schmalz’s works are found in churches, universities, and public places in cities around the world.
Among Schmalz’s other projects, he is also working on making sculptural representations of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, which laments consumerism, global warming, and environmental degradation. He also has a project in the works depicting the holy Eucharist and Blessed Carlo Acutis, the Italian teen who documented Marian apparitions and Eucharistic miracles.
Schmalz is also the official sculptor for the coming National Eucharistic Congress to be held this July 17–21 in Indianapolis.
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The meetings took place from 15-16 April at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. Discussions focused on a number of areas, including the global situation, prayers for end to conflicts in different parts of the world, especially the Middle East and Ukraine. The Council of Cardinals with Pope Francis expressed hopes that efforts to find paths of negotiation and peace would be strengthened.
Vatican News
The meeting of the Council of Cardinals that began on Monday 15 April concluded the following day in the afternoon at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. Tuesday’s session began with a report by Cardinal Mario Grech and Msgr. Piero Coda on the current Synod, according to a Holy See Press Office comunique. The meeting concluded “after a reflection on the implementation of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium in diocesan curias, and with reports by each Cardinal on the social, political and ecclesial situation of the different regions of origin.” During the meetings “there were references – and prayers on several occasions – dedicated to realities of war and conflict” in different parts of the world, “particularly in the Middle East and Ukraine.” The Council members and the Pope “expressed concern about what is happening and the hope that efforts to find paths of negotiation and peace will be strengthened.”
On Monday 15 April the Cardinals discussed “the role of women in the Church” and listened to the reflections of Sister Regina da Costa Pedro of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Immaculate, “who shared real life stories and thoughts of a number of Brazilian women,” and Professor Stella Morra of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University who spoke about the way various cultures appreciate the role of women in different parts of the world.
Present at the working session along with Pope Francis were Cardinals who are members of the Council of Cardinals – Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State; Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Governorate of Vatican City State; Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa; Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston; Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona; Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, Archbishop of Québec; Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg; Cardinal Sérgio da Rocha, Archbishop of San Salvador de Bahia; and Council secretary, Bishop Marco Mellino, Titular Bishop of Cresima. The Council of Cardinals will meet again in June.
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 16, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
The International Ratzinger Foundation will hold the first international congress “Cooperatores Veritatis” (“Co-workers of the Truth”) at Pan American University in Mexico City from April 17–19 to explore the dialogue between Pope Benedict XVI — who would have turned 97 years old today, April 16 — and philosophical traditions.
According to the event’s website, the congress came about as a result of a research project initiated by the International Ratzinger Foundation, which seeks to “to establish an extensive network of researchers across various fields of knowledge to perpetuate systematic studies on the profound intellectual and spiritual legacy of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.”
As part of this project, the collective work “Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue with Philosophical Traditions: From Plato to Vattimo,” was published in which 19 authors explore how Pope Benedict XVI “engages with the great philosophers of the Western tradition and dialogues with them from his unique theological perspective.”
During the three days of the event, the book’s authors will present their research, offering keynote lectures on their respective studies. There will also be time to get together and share ideas.
The researchers come from 15 countries including Spain, the United States, England, Ireland, Australia, France, and Germany. In addition, distinguished winners of the Ratzinger Prize will be present, such as Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz from Germany, Tracey Rowland from Australia, and Pablo Blanco from Spain, recognized for their valuable contributions to philosophical research and publication.
As part of the congress, the book “Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue with Philosophical Traditions” will be officially presented in the Spanish and English editions.
The event is free, but pre-registration through the event website is required to ensure participation.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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After an early morning fire April 4 reportedly set by a resident damaged the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Lake Church in Verona, the church could reopen its doors for Mass the weekend of April 20-21, said Father Peter G. Wehrle, pastor.
On April 4, Elliot Bennett, 42, allegedly broke into the church using a crowbar and set fire to about 10 pews, statues of Mary and Joseph, and the altar, according to police reports. Bennett turned himself into the Verona police station just hours after the incident admitting to the crime, and faces nine charges including burglary, arson, weapons and bias intimidation, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Fire alarms alerted the fire department, which quickly extinguished the fire. In a Facebook announcement to the community on April 4, Wehrle, said the fire did not damage the structure of the church, which was built in 1964 to replace a smaller church and accommodate a then-burgeoning parish.
“Fortunately, the structure appears to be sound, but the church is heavily damaged,” he wrote. “However, we are grateful that no one was injured. … Faith teaches us that we are all created in the image and likeness of God and that we must ask him to help guide everyone into the way of his peace.”
Wehrle said a restoration company was brought in to clean up the soot. The pipe organ and pews were scheduled to be assessed by professionals. The statues, the kneelers in front of them and altar linens were destroyed.
“Unfortunately, the church is heavily damaged, and the parish community is heartbroken,” the Archdiocese of Newark said in a statement. “However, we have faith that we will get through this difficult time and request the community to keep those affected in their prayers.”
Rabbi Robert Tobin of B’nai Shalom in West Orange comforted Father Wehrle as he assessed the damage from the fire. Pastor Anthony Giordano of the Calvary Lutheran Church, which is located around the block from Our Lady of the Lake, also offered the parish community his church.
“Sanctuaries are supposed to be a place of peace,” he said, adding that the fire was “devastating to someone like myself who treasures all houses of worship.”
Just hours before the fire, Muslims, Jews and Christians joined together at an Iftar dinner held in town. Wehrle said faith leaders discussed the shared values of their faiths including the importance of fasting.
“We have received an outpouring of support from various houses of worship and individuals and by the grace of God, we will work together to help instill a sense of peace in our community,” Wehrle said.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Elliot has caused damage at our church,” Wehrle told Jersey Catholic, Newark’s archdiocesan news outlet. Bennett was arrested last year after he admitted to defacing a statue of Jesus outside the church, police said. In 2018, he was arrested after he smashed statues of Jesus, St. John and the Blessed Mary, saying people should not “worship false idols made from stone,” according to police.
Although the items around the church sustained damage, the fire did not damage the faith of the 2,700 parishioners, many of whom attended last weekend’s Masses relocated to the neighboring school auditorium.
During Mass on April 7, Wehrle asked for prayers for Elliot and his family while calling for a reconsideration of how we approach mental illness.
“We need to be helping him and praying for him and his family,” Father Wehrle said in his homily.
The church had just celebrated a joyous Easter season. Newark Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin celebrated Palm Sunday at Our Lady of the Lake on Palm Sunday, March 24. Father Wehrle said over 2,000 of the faithful attended Easter Masses. The church is also celebrating its centennial this year.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has documented over 300 acts of vandalism, arson, and other destruction at parishes and other Catholic sites in the United States since 2020. These include arson and statues getting beheaded, cut, smashed, and painted. Gravestones have also been defaced with swastikas and anti-Catholic language, and American flags next to the graves have been burned.
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